Generating query search based on field name selections

ABSTRACT

Embodiments are disclosed for a data analysis tool for facilitating iterative and exploratory analysis of large sets of data. In some embodiments a data analysis tool includes a graphical user interface through which an interactive set of field identifiers is displayed. Each of the listed field identifiers may reference fields associated with a set of events returned in response to a search query, the set of events including machine data produced by components within an information technology (IT) environment that reflects activity in the IT environment. In response to user selections of field identifiers included in the displayed set, a data analysis tool may cause display of manipulable visualizations based on values included in fields referenced by the selected field identifiers.

CROSS-REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/276,621, filed on Sep. 26, 2016, entitled “FIELD ANALYZERFOR EVENT SEARCH SCREEN”, which is hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure pertains toinformation organization and understanding, and more particularly, togenerating and displaying visualizations of event data (e.g.machine-generated event data) for analysis.

BACKGROUND

Modern data centers and other computing environments can compriseanywhere from a few host computer systems to thousands of systemsconfigured to process data, service requests from remote clients, andperform numerous other computational tasks. During operation, variouscomponents within these computing environments often generatesignificant volumes of machine-generated data (“machine data”). Ingeneral, machine data can include performance data, diagnosticinformation and/or any of various other types of data indicative ofperformance or operation of equipment in a computing system or otherinformation technology environment. Such data can be analyzed todiagnose equipment performance problems, monitor user interactions, andto derive other insights.

A number of tools are available to analyze machine-generated data. Inorder to reduce the volume of the potentially vast amount of machinedata that may be generated, many of these tools typically pre-processthe data based on anticipated data-analysis needs. For example,pre-specified data items may be extracted from the machine data andstored in a database to facilitate efficient retrieval and analysis ofthose data items at search time. However, the rest of the machine datatypically is not saved and is discarded during pre-processing. Asstorage capacity becomes progressively cheaper and more plentiful, thereare fewer incentives to discard these portions of machine data and manyreasons to retain more of the data.

This plentiful storage capacity is presently making it feasible to storemassive quantities of minimally processed machine data for laterretrieval and analysis. In general, storing minimally processed machinedata and performing analysis operations at search time can providegreater flexibility because it enables an analyst to search all of themachine data, instead of searching only a pre-specified set of dataitems. This may, for example, enable an analyst to investigate differentaspects of the machine data that previously were unavailable foranalysis. However, analyzing and searching massive quantities of machinedata presents a number of challenges.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One or more embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated by wayof example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanyingdrawings, in which like references indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked computer environment in which anembodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example data intake and querysystem in which an embodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates how indexers process, index,and store data received from forwarders in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates how a search head and indexersperform a search query in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario where a common customer ID is found amonglog data received from three disparate sources in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 6A illustrates a search screen in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 6B illustrates a data summary dialog that enables a user to selectvarious data sources in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 7A-7D illustrate a series of user interface screens for an exampledata model-driven report generation interface in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example search query received from a client andexecuted by search peers in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9A illustrates a key indicators view in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9B illustrates an incident review dashboard in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9C illustrates a proactive monitoring tree in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9D illustrates a user interface screen displaying both log data andperformance data in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example cloud-based dataintake and query system in which an embodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an example data intake and querysystem that performs searches across external data systems in accordancewith the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 12-14 illustrate a series of user interface screens for an exampledata model-driven report generation interface in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 15-17 illustrate example visualizations generated by a reportingapplication in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 18A is a block diagram that illustrates an example data analysismodule in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 18B is flow chart illustrating an example process performed by acomputer system implementing a data analysis tool in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 19 illustrates an example dataset selection screen in accordancewith the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 20A-20C show screen captures of an example data analysis interfacethat illustrate various interactive features related to an exampleinteractive “field picker” element in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIGS. 21A-21B how a series of screen captures of an example dataanalysis interface illustrating an example response to a user selectionof a field identifier via a “field picker” element in accordance withthe disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 22A-22B show a series of screen captures of an example dataanalysis interface illustrating an example response to a user selectionof a particular field identifier along with a time dimension identifiervia a “field picker” element in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 23 shows a screen capture of an example data analysis interfaceillustrating an example response to a user interaction with a displayedvisualization in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 24A-24B show a series of screen captures of an example dataanalysis interface illustrating an example zoom functionality to adjusta time range in a displayed visualization in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 25A-25C show a series of screen captures of an example dataanalysis interface illustrating example options to adjust the time rangeof values to be included for analysis in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIGS. 26A-26B show a series of screen captures of an example dataanalysis interface illustrating features related to splits in displayedtime series visualizations in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 27A-27C show a series of screen captures of an example dataanalysis interface illustrating features related to the juxtaposition ofsplits in time series visualizations in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIGS. 28A-28B show a series of screen captures of example data analysisinterface illustrating features related to splits in displayed non-timeseries visualizations in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 29A-29C show a series of screen captures of an example dataanalysis interface illustrating features related to the juxtaposition ofsplits in non-time series visualizations in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 30A-30G show a series of screen captures of an user interactionflow through an example data analysis interface in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 31 shows a screen capture of an example data analysis interfaceillustrating options to save an analysis of a dataset in accordance withthe disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 32 shows a screen capture of an example search screen that isdisplayed in response to a request to view a visualization generated bythe data analysis tool in search in accordance with the disclosedembodiments; and

FIG. 33 shows high-level example of a hardware architecture of aprocessing system that can be used to implement the disclosedtechniques.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In this description, references to “an embodiment”, “one embodiment” orthe like, mean that the particular feature, function, structure orcharacteristic being described is included in at least one embodiment ofthe technique introduced here. Occurrences of such phrases in thisspecification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. Onthe other hand, the embodiments referred to also are not necessarilymutually exclusive.

Table of Contents

Embodiments are described herein according to the following outline:

1.0. General Overview

-   -   1.1 Overview of Data Analysis Tool

2.0. Operating Environment

-   -   2.1. Host Devices    -   2.2. Client Devices    -   2.3. Client Device Applications    -   2.4. Data Server System    -   2.5. Data Ingestion        -   2.5.1. Input        -   2.5.2. Parsing        -   2.5.3. Indexing    -   2.6. Query Processing    -   2.7. Field Extraction    -   2.8. Example Search Screen    -   2.9. Data Modelling    -   2.10. Acceleration Techniques        -   2.10.1. Aggregation Technique        -   2.10.2. Keyword Index        -   2.10.3. High Performance Analytics Store        -   2.10.4. Accelerating Report Generation    -   2.11. Security Features    -   2.12. Data Center Monitoring    -   2.13. Cloud-Based System Overview    -   2.14. Searching Externally Archived Data        -   2.14.1. ERP Process Features    -   2.15. IT Service Monitoring

3.0. Data Analysis Tool

-   -   3.1. Data Analysis Tool Processes    -   3.2. Data Analysis Tool Graphical User Interfaces

4.0. Computer Processing System

1.0. General Overview

Modern data centers and other computing environments can compriseanywhere from a few host computer systems to thousands of systemsconfigured to process data, service requests from remote clients, andperform numerous other computational tasks. During operation, variouscomponents within these computing environments often generatesignificant volumes of machine-generated data. For example, machine datais generated by various components in the information technology (IT)environments, such as servers, sensors, routers, mobile devices,Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. Machine-generated data caninclude system logs, network packet data, sensor data, applicationprogram data, error logs, stack traces, system performance data, etc. Ingeneral, machine-generated data can also include performance data,diagnostic information, and many other types of data that can beanalyzed to diagnose performance problems, monitor user interactions,and to derive other insights.

A number of tools are available to analyze machine data, that is,machine-generated data. In order to reduce the size of the potentiallyvast amount of machine data that may be generated, many of these toolstypically pre-process the data based on anticipated data-analysis needs.For example, pre-specified data items may be extracted from the machinedata and stored in a database to facilitate efficient retrieval andanalysis of those data items at search time. However, the rest of themachine data typically is not saved and discarded during pre-processing.As storage capacity becomes progressively cheaper and more plentiful,there are fewer incentives to discard these portions of machine data andmany reasons to retain more of the data.

This plentiful storage capacity is presently making it feasible to storemassive quantities of minimally processed machine data for laterretrieval and analysis. In general, storing minimally processed machinedata and performing analysis operations at search time can providegreater flexibility because it enables an analyst to search all of themachine data, instead of searching only a pre-specified set of dataitems. This may enable an analyst to investigate different aspects ofthe machine data that previously were unavailable for analysis.

However, analyzing and searching massive quantities of machine datapresents a number of challenges. For example, a data center, servers, ornetwork appliances may generate many different types and formats ofmachine data (e.g., system logs, network packet data (e.g., wire data,etc.), sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces,system performance data, operating system data, virtualization data,etc.) from thousands of different components, which can collectively bevery time-consuming to analyze. In another example, mobile devices maygenerate large amounts of information relating to data accesses,application performance, operating system performance, networkperformance, etc. There can be millions of mobile devices that reportthese types of information.

These challenges can be addressed by using an event-based data intakeand query system, such as the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system developed bySplunk Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system isthe leading platform for providing real-time operational intelligencethat enables organizations to collect, index, and searchmachine-generated data from various websites, applications, servers,networks, and mobile devices that power their businesses. The SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system is particularly useful for analyzing data which iscommonly found in system log files, network data, and other data inputsources. Although many of the techniques described herein are explainedwith reference to a data intake and query system similar to the SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system, these techniques are also applicable to other typesof data systems.

In the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, machine-generated data are collectedand stored as “events”. An event comprises a portion of themachine-generated data and is associated with a specific point in time.For example, events may be derived from “time series data,” where thetime series data comprises a sequence of data points (e.g., performancemeasurements from a computer system, etc.) that are associated withsuccessive points in time. In general, each event can be associated witha timestamp that is derived from the raw data in the event, determinedthrough interpolation between temporally proximate events having knowntimestamps, or determined based on other configurable rules forassociating timestamps with events, etc.

In some instances, machine data can have a predefined format, where dataitems with specific data formats are stored at predefined locations inthe data. For example, the machine data may include data stored asfields in a database table. In other instances, machine data may nothave a predefined format, that is, the data is not at fixed, predefinedlocations, but the data does have repeatable patterns and is not random.This means that some machine data can comprise various data items ofdifferent data types and that may be stored at different locationswithin the data. For example, when the data source is an operatingsystem log, an event can include one or more lines from the operatingsystem log containing raw data that includes different types ofperformance and diagnostic information associated with a specific pointin time.

Examples of components which may generate machine data from which eventscan be derived include, but are not limited to, web servers, applicationservers, databases, firewalls, routers, operating systems, and softwareapplications that execute on computer systems, mobile devices, sensors,Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. The data generated by such datasources can include, for example and without limitation, server logfiles, activity log files, configuration files, messages, network packetdata, performance measurements, sensor measurements, etc.

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system uses flexible schema to specify how toextract information from the event data. A flexible schema may bedeveloped and redefined as needed. Note that a flexible schema may beapplied to event data “on the fly,” when it is needed (e.g., at searchtime, index time, ingestion time, etc.). When the schema is not appliedto event data until search time it may be referred to as a “late-bindingschema.”

During operation, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system starts with raw inputdata (e.g., one or more system logs, streams of network packet data,sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces, systemperformance data, etc.). The system divides this raw data into blocks(e.g., buckets of data, each associated with a specific time frame,etc.), and parses the raw data to produce timestamped events. The systemstores the timestamped events in a data store. The system enables usersto run queries against the stored data to, for example, retrieve eventsthat meet criteria specified in a query, such as containing certainkeywords or having specific values in defined fields. As used hereinthroughout, data that is part of an event is referred to as “eventdata”. In this context, the term “field” refers to a location in theevent data containing one or more values for a specific data item. Aswill be described in more detail herein, the fields are defined byextraction rules (e.g., regular expressions) that derive one or morevalues from the portion of raw machine data in each event that has aparticular field specified by an extraction rule. The set of values soproduced are semantically-related (such as IP address), even though theraw machine data in each event may be in different formats (e.g.,semantically-related values may be in different positions in the eventsderived from different sources).

As noted above, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system utilizes a late-bindingschema to event data while performing queries on events. One aspect of alate-binding schema is applying “extraction rules” to event data toextract values for specific fields during search time. Morespecifically, the extraction rules for a field can include one or moreinstructions that specify how to extract a value for the field from theevent data. An extraction rule can generally include any type ofinstruction for extracting values from data in events. In some cases, anextraction rule comprises a regular expression where a sequence ofcharacters form a search pattern, in which case the rule is referred toas a “regex rule.” The system applies the regex rule to the event datato extract values for associated fields in the event data by searchingthe event data for the sequence of characters defined in the regex rule.

In the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, a field extractor may be configured toautomatically generate extraction rules for certain field values in theevents when the events are being created, indexed, or stored, orpossibly at a later time. Alternatively, a user may manually defineextraction rules for fields using a variety of techniques. In contrastto a conventional schema for a database system, a late-binding schema isnot defined at data ingestion time. Instead, the late-binding schema canbe developed on an ongoing basis until the time a query is actuallyexecuted. This means that extraction rules for the fields in a query maybe provided in the query itself, or may be located during execution ofthe query. Hence, as a user learns more about the data in the events,the user can continue to refine the late-binding schema by adding newfields, deleting fields, or modifying the field extraction rules for usethe next time the schema is used by the system. Because the SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system maintains the underlying raw data and useslate-binding schema for searching the raw data, it enables a user tocontinue investigating and learn valuable insights about the raw data.

In some embodiments, a common field name may be used to reference two ormore fields containing equivalent data items, even though the fields maybe associated with different types of events that possibly havedifferent data formats and different extraction rules. By enabling acommon field name to be used to identify equivalent fields fromdifferent types of events generated by disparate data sources, thesystem facilitates use of a “common information model” (CIM) across thedisparate data sources (further discussed with respect to FIG. 5).

1.1. Overview of Data Analysis Tool

In general, many existing tools for analyzing data rely on a structureddata sources. Aforementioned techniques for ingesting and searchingmachine data provide powerful tools for analyzing what is in some casesunstructured data and gaining insights into the underlying activitiesdescribed in the data. For example, technical users that are well-versedin other query languages can develop proficiency, with relative ease, ina query language such as SPL (Splunk Processing Language) (described inmore detail herein) that utilizes a late-binding schema for searchingwhat is in some cases raw unstructured data. This ability enables theuser to continue investigating to learn valuable insights about the rawdata that may not be initially evident. However, due to its complexity,a query language such as SPL can be difficult to adopt for bothnon-technical users as well as data-savvy users that do not typicallywork in reactive settings. Such users will inevitably resort to usingother tools for data analysis that often do not provide access tounderlying data that is indexed and available.

Further, reporting tools used for generating highly-customizablevisualizations can be effectively utilized as a next step in a workflowafter analysis is completed, but are not otherwise not well suited tofacilitating exploratory analysis of large amounts of data. Existingtechniques for reporting and visualizing data, even those built upon thefoundational techniques for late-binding schema, often require that auser have some sort of pre-existing operational insight to guide indefining the report or visualization to be produced. Without thispre-existing insight, reporting tools can prove cumbersome as the useris left to iteratively redefine parameters on their own, for example bymodifying underlying searches, changing visualization types, rearrangingvisualizations, etc.

Introduced herein are techniques for facilitating iterative andexploratory analysis of data that address the aforementioned problemswith existing techniques. Examples of a data analysis tool, andassociated graphical user interfaces, are described herein in thecontext of facilitating analysis of values included in fields associatedwith a set of events in a data set. In this sense, the “data analysistool” may be referred to in some instances as a “field analysis tool” or“field analyzer.” However, the innovations described herein are notlimited to the analysis of fields in a data set. A person havingordinary skill will recognize that the innovations described in thedisclosed embodiments can similarly be applied to other data analysisapplications.

In an embodiment a data analysis tool is described that can causedisplay to a user, via a graphical user interface (GUI), a set ofselectable field identifiers (e.g. field names) that reference fieldsthat occur in a set of events in a data set, for example returned inresponse to an initial search query. Through the GUI, a user can selectone or more of the field identifiers from the displayed list of fieldidentifiers. In response, the data analysis tool can automatically causedisplay of a manipulable visualization based on values included in theone or more fields referenced by the one or more selected fieldidentifiers.

In some cases, displayed visualizations case be based on aggregationsand splits of the values included in the selected fields. In otherwords, values representing numerical measures can be summarized forvisualization using defined aggregation functions (sum, average, median,95th percentile, etc.). Visualizations of these aggregated measures canalso be split according to values representing categorical dimensions,thereby creating juxtaposed plots, graphs, charts, etc. of aggregatedmeasures for each value of a given dimension. For example, a log ofcredit card transactions may include a measure (i.e. a field) called“amount” that includes numerical values. The log may also includecategories such as “month” and “country” (also both fields) that includecategorical values (represented either numerically or literally). Basedon this schema, a user can select one or more of the field identifiersdisplayed in the set of field identifiers to automatically cause displayof a visualization based on any of the following exampleaggregations/split combinations:

-   -   sum of all transaction amounts across a time range    -   sum of all transaction amounts per day of a selected month    -   average transaction amount per country    -   average transaction amount per country for each day of the month

Certain options for re-configuring the arrangement of a generatedvisualization can be presented to a user. For example, an option tomodify the juxtaposition of categorical splits in a given visualizationcan be presented to a user to aid in analysis. However, in general, theprocess of generating a visualization can be performed automatically andin the background, for example in response to user field selections.Defining each visualization is not presented as a focus to the user,thereby allowing the user to iteratively explore the data and arrive atserendipitous insights. For example, consider again the log of creditcard transactions. Given this data set, the data analysis tool may causedisplay to the user of a set of field names that reference fields thatoccur in the data set (amount, year, month, day, time, country, city,issuing bank, balance, etc.). In response to the user simply selectingthe “amount” field and the “country” field, the data analysis tool mayautomatically cause display of a bar chart that charts the averagetransaction amount split in each of several countries. If the user thenadditionally selects the “month” field, the visualization mayautomatically and dynamically update to reflect multiple bar chartsshowing the average transaction amount per country during each day of aparticular month. In some embodiments, decisions made by the analysistool selecting certain visualization parameters (e.g. type, arrangement,scale, axes, splits, etc.) may be based at least in part on heuristictechniques to generate visualizations intended to provide human insightgiven a limited number of user inputs (e.g. one or more fieldselections).

2.0. Operating Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked computer system 100 in which anembodiment may be implemented. Those skilled in the art would understandthat FIG. 1 represents one example of a networked computer system andother embodiments may use different arrangements.

The networked computer system 100 comprises one or more computingdevices. These one or more computing devices comprise any combination ofhardware and software configured to implement the various logicalcomponents described herein. For example, the one or more computingdevices may include one or more memories that store instructions forimplementing the various components described herein, one or morehardware processors configured to execute the instructions stored in theone or more memories, and various data repositories in the one or morememories for storing data structures utilized and manipulated by thevarious components.

In an embodiment, one or more client devices 102 are coupled to one ormore host devices 106 and a data intake and query system 108 via one ormore networks 104. Networks 104 broadly represent one or more LANs,WANs, cellular networks (e.g., LTE, HSPA, 3G, and other cellulartechnologies), and/or networks using any of wired, wireless, terrestrialmicrowave, or satellite links, and may include the public Internet.

2.1. Host Devices

In the illustrated embodiment, a system 100 includes one or more hostdevices 106. Host devices 106 may broadly include any number ofcomputers, virtual machine instances, and/or data centers that areconfigured to host or execute one or more instances of host applications114. In general, a host device 106 may be involved, directly orindirectly, in processing requests received from client devices 102.Each host device 106 may comprise, for example, one or more of a networkdevice, a web server, an application server, a database server, etc. Acollection of host devices 106 may be configured to implement anetwork-based service. For example, a provider of a network-basedservice may configure one or more host devices 106 and host applications114 (e.g., one or more web servers, application servers, databaseservers, etc.) to collectively implement the network-based application.

In general, client devices 102 communicate with one or more hostapplications 114 to exchange information. The communication between aclient device 102 and a host application 114 may, for example, be basedon the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or any other network protocol.Content delivered from the host application 114 to a client device 102may include, for example, HTML documents, media content, etc. Thecommunication between a client device 102 and host application 114 mayinclude sending various requests and receiving data packets. Forexample, in general, a client device 102 or application running on aclient device may initiate communication with a host application 114 bymaking a request for a specific resource (e.g., based on an HTTPrequest), and the application server may respond with the requestedcontent stored in one or more response packets.

In the illustrated embodiment, one or more of host applications 114 maygenerate various types of performance data during operation, includingevent logs, network data, sensor data, and other types ofmachine-generated data. For example, a host application 114 comprising aweb server may generate one or more web server logs in which details ofinteractions between the web server and any number of client devices 102is recorded. As another example, a host device 106 comprising a routermay generate one or more router logs that record information related tonetwork traffic managed by the router. As yet another example, a hostapplication 114 comprising a database server may generate one or morelogs that record information related to requests sent from other hostapplications 114 (e.g., web servers or application servers) for datamanaged by the database server.

2.2. Client Devices

Client devices 102 of FIG. 1 represent any computing device capable ofinteracting with one or more host devices 106 via a network 104.Examples of client devices 102 may include, without limitation, smartphones, tablet computers, handheld computers, wearable devices, laptopcomputers, desktop computers, servers, portable media players, gamingdevices, and so forth. In general, a client device 102 can provideaccess to different content, for instance, content provided by one ormore host devices 106, etc. Each client device 102 may comprise one ormore client applications 110, described in more detail in a separatesection hereinafter.

2.3. Client Device Applications

In an embodiment, each client device 102 may host or execute one or moreclient applications 110 that are capable of interacting with one or morehost devices 106 via one or more networks 104. For instance, a clientapplication 110 may be or comprise a web browser that a user may use tonavigate to one or more websites or other resources provided by one ormore host devices 106. As another example, a client application 110 maycomprise a mobile application or “app.” For example, an operator of anetwork-based service hosted by one or more host devices 106 may makeavailable one or more mobile apps that enable users of client devices102 to access various resources of the network-based service. As yetanother example, client applications 110 may include backgroundprocesses that perform various operations without direct interactionfrom a user. A client application 110 may include a “plug-in” or“extension” to another application, such as a web browser plug-in orextension.

In an embodiment, a client application 110 may include a monitoringcomponent 112. At a high level, the monitoring component 112 comprises asoftware component or other logic that facilitates generatingperformance data related to a client device's operating state, includingmonitoring network traffic sent and received from the client device andcollecting other device and/or application-specific information.Monitoring component 112 may be an integrated component of a clientapplication 110, a plug-in, an extension, or any other type of add-oncomponent. Monitoring component 112 may also be a stand-alone process.

In one embodiment, a monitoring component 112 may be created when aclient application 110 is developed, for example, by an applicationdeveloper using a software development kit (SDK). The SDK may includecustom monitoring code that can be incorporated into the codeimplementing a client application 110. When the code is converted to anexecutable application, the custom code implementing the monitoringfunctionality can become part of the application itself.

In some cases, an SDK or other code for implementing the monitoringfunctionality may be offered by a provider of a data intake and querysystem, such as a system 108. In such cases, the provider of the system108 can implement the custom code so that performance data generated bythe monitoring functionality is sent to the system 108 to facilitateanalysis of the performance data by a developer of the clientapplication or other users.

In an embodiment, the custom monitoring code may be incorporated intothe code of a client application 110 in a number of different ways, suchas the insertion of one or more lines in the client application codethat call or otherwise invoke the monitoring component 112. As such, adeveloper of a client application 110 can add one or more lines of codeinto the client application 110 to trigger the monitoring component 112at desired points during execution of the application. Code thattriggers the monitoring component may be referred to as a monitortrigger. For instance, a monitor trigger may be included at or near thebeginning of the executable code of the client application 110 such thatthe monitoring component 112 is initiated or triggered as theapplication is launched, or included at other points in the code thatcorrespond to various actions of the client application, such as sendinga network request or displaying a particular interface.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may monitor one or moreaspects of network traffic sent and/or received by a client application110. For example, the monitoring component 112 may be configured tomonitor data packets transmitted to and/or from one or more hostapplications 114. Incoming and/or outgoing data packets can be read orexamined to identify network data contained within the packets, forexample, and other aspects of data packets can be analyzed to determinea number of network performance statistics. Monitoring network trafficmay enable information to be gathered particular to the networkperformance associated with a client application 110 or set ofapplications.

In an embodiment, network performance data refers to any type of datathat indicates information about the network and/or network performance.Network performance data may include, for instance, a URL requested, aconnection type (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, etc.), a connection start time, aconnection end time, an HTTP status code, request length, responselength, request headers, response headers, connection status (e.g.,completion, response time(s), failure, etc.), and the like. Uponobtaining network performance data indicating performance of thenetwork, the network performance data can be transmitted to a dataintake and query system 108 for analysis.

Upon developing a client application 110 that incorporates a monitoringcomponent 112, the client application 110 can be distributed to clientdevices 102. Applications generally can be distributed to client devices102 in any manner, or they can be pre-loaded. In some cases, theapplication may be distributed to a client device 102 via an applicationmarketplace or other application distribution system. For instance, anapplication marketplace or other application distribution system mightdistribute the application to a client device based on a request fromthe client device to download the application.

Examples of functionality that enables monitoring performance of aclient device are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/524,748, entitled “UTILIZING PACKET HEADERS TO MONITOR NETWORKTRAFFIC IN ASSOCIATION WITH A CLIENT DEVICE”, filed on 27 Oct. 2014, andwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor andcollect performance data related to one or more aspects of theoperational state of a client application 110 and/or client device 102.For example, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to collectdevice performance information by monitoring one or more client deviceoperations, or by making calls to an operating system and/or one or moreother applications executing on a client device 102 for performanceinformation. Device performance information may include, for instance, acurrent wireless signal strength of the device, a current connectiontype and network carrier, current memory performance information, ageographic location of the device, a device orientation, and any otherinformation related to the operational state of the client device.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor andcollect other device profile information including, for example, a typeof client device, a manufacturer and model of the device, versions ofvarious software applications installed on the device, and so forth.

In general, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to generateperformance data in response to a monitor trigger in the code of aclient application 110 or other triggering application event, asdescribed above, and to store the performance data in one or more datarecords. Each data record, for example, may include a collection offield-value pairs, each field-value pair storing a particular item ofperformance data in association with a field for the item. For example,a data record generated by a monitoring component 112 may include a“networkLatency” field (not shown in the Figure) in which a value isstored. This field indicates a network latency measurement associatedwith one or more network requests. The data record may include a “state”field to store a value indicating a state of a network connection, andso forth for any number of aspects of collected performance data.

2.4. Data Server System

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary data intake and querysystem 108, similar to the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system. System 108includes one or more forwarders 204 that receive data from a variety ofinput data sources 202, and one or more indexers 206 that process andstore the data in one or more data stores 208. These forwarders andindexers can comprise separate computer systems, or may alternativelycomprise separate processes executing on one or more computer systems.

Each data source 202 broadly represents a distinct source of data thatcan be consumed by a system 108. Examples of a data source 202 include,without limitation, data files, directories of files, data sent over anetwork, event logs, registries, etc.

During operation, the forwarders 204 identify which indexers 206 receivedata collected from a data source 202 and forward the data to theappropriate indexers. Forwarders 204 can also perform operations on thedata before forwarding, including removing extraneous data, detectingtimestamps in the data, parsing data, indexing data, routing data basedon criteria relating to the data being routed, and/or performing otherdata transformations.

In an embodiment, a forwarder 204 may comprise a service accessible toclient devices 102 and host devices 106 via a network 104. For example,one type of forwarder 204 may be capable of consuming vast amounts ofreal-time data from a potentially large number of client devices 102and/or host devices 106. The forwarder 204 may, for example, comprise acomputing device which implements multiple data pipelines or “queues” tohandle forwarding of network data to indexers 206. A forwarder 204 mayalso perform many of the functions that are performed by an indexer. Forexample, a forwarder 204 may perform keyword extractions on raw data orparse raw data to create events. A forwarder 204 may generate timestamps for events. Additionally or alternatively, a forwarder 204 mayperform routing of events to indexers. Data store 208 may contain eventsderived from machine data from a variety of sources all pertaining tothe same component in an IT environment, and this data may be producedby the machine in question or by other components in the IT environment.

2.5. Data Ingestion

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example data flow performedby Data Intake and Query system 108, in accordance with the disclosedembodiments. The data flow illustrated in FIG. 3 is provided forillustrative purposes only; those skilled in the art would understandthat one or more of the steps of the processes illustrated in FIG. 3 maybe removed or the ordering of the steps may be changed. Furthermore, forthe purposes of illustrating a clear example, one or more particularsystem components are described in the context of performing variousoperations during each of the data flow stages. For example, a forwarderis described as receiving and processing data during an input phase; anindexer is described as parsing and indexing data during parsing andindexing phases; and a search head is described as performing a searchquery during a search phase. However, other system arrangements anddistributions of the processing steps across system components may beused.

2.5.1. Input

At block 302, a forwarder receives data from an input source, such as adata source 202 shown in FIG. 2. A forwarder initially may receive thedata as a raw data stream generated by the input source. For example, aforwarder may receive a data stream from a log file generated by anapplication server, from a stream of network data from a network device,or from any other source of data. In one embodiment, a forwarderreceives the raw data and may segment the data stream into “blocks”, or“buckets,” possibly of a uniform data size, to facilitate subsequentprocessing steps.

At block 304, a forwarder or other system component annotates each blockgenerated from the raw data with one or more metadata fields. Thesemetadata fields may, for example, provide information related to thedata block as a whole and may apply to each event that is subsequentlyderived from the data in the data block. For example, the metadatafields may include separate fields specifying each of a host, a source,and a source type related to the data block. A host field may contain avalue identifying a host name or IP address of a device that generatedthe data. A source field may contain a value identifying a source of thedata, such as a pathname of a file or a protocol and port related toreceived network data. A source type field may contain a valuespecifying a particular source type label for the data. Additionalmetadata fields may also be included during the input phase, such as acharacter encoding of the data, if known, and possibly other values thatprovide information relevant to later processing steps. In anembodiment, a forwarder forwards the annotated data blocks to anothersystem component (typically an indexer) for further processing.

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system allows forwarding of data from one SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE instance to another, or even to a third-party system. SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system can employ different types of forwarders in aconfiguration.

In an embodiment, a forwarder may contain the essential componentsneeded to forward data. It can gather data from a variety of inputs andforward the data to a SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE server for indexing andsearching. It also can tag metadata (e.g., source, source type, host,etc.).

Additionally or optionally, in an embodiment, a forwarder has thecapabilities of the aforementioned forwarder as well as additionalcapabilities. The forwarder can parse data before forwarding the data(e.g., associate a time stamp with a portion of data and create anevent, etc.) and can route data based on criteria such as source or typeof event. It can also index data locally while forwarding the data toanother indexer.

2.5.2. Parsing

At block 306, an indexer receives data blocks from a forwarder andparses the data to organize the data into events. In an embodiment, toorganize the data into events, an indexer may determine a source typeassociated with each data block (e.g., by extracting a source type labelfrom the metadata fields associated with the data block, etc.) and referto a source type configuration corresponding to the identified sourcetype. The source type definition may include one or more properties thatindicate to the indexer to automatically determine the boundaries ofevents within the data. In general, these properties may include regularexpression-based rules or delimiter rules where, for example, eventboundaries may be indicated by predefined characters or characterstrings. These predefined characters may include punctuation marks orother special characters including, for example, carriage returns, tabs,spaces, line breaks, etc. If a source type for the data is unknown tothe indexer, an indexer may infer a source type for the data byexamining the structure of the data. Then, it can apply an inferredsource type definition to the data to create the events.

At block 308, the indexer determines a timestamp for each event. Similarto the process for creating events, an indexer may again refer to asource type definition associated with the data to locate one or moreproperties that indicate instructions for determining a timestamp foreach event. The properties may, for example, instruct an indexer toextract a time value from a portion of data in the event, to interpolatetime values based on timestamps associated with temporally proximateevents, to create a timestamp based on a time the event data wasreceived or generated, to use the timestamp of a previous event, or useany other rules for determining timestamps.

At block 310, the indexer associates with each event one or moremetadata fields including a field containing the timestamp (in someembodiments, a timestamp may be included in the metadata fields)determined for the event. These metadata fields may include a number of“default fields” that are associated with all events, and may alsoinclude one more custom fields as defined by a user. Similar to themetadata fields associated with the data blocks at block 304, thedefault metadata fields associated with each event may include a host,source, and source type field including or in addition to a fieldstoring the timestamp.

At block 312, an indexer may optionally apply one or moretransformations to data included in the events created at block 306. Forexample, such transformations can include removing a portion of an event(e.g., a portion used to define event boundaries, extraneous charactersfrom the event, other extraneous text, etc.), masking a portion of anevent (e.g., masking a credit card number), removing redundant portionsof an event, etc. The transformations applied to event data may, forexample, be specified in one or more configuration files and referencedby one or more source type definitions.

2.5.3. Indexing

At blocks 314 and 316, an indexer can optionally generate a keywordindex to facilitate fast keyword searching for event data. To build akeyword index, at block 314, the indexer identifies a set of keywords ineach event. At block 316, the indexer includes the identified keywordsin an index, which associates each stored keyword with referencepointers to events containing that keyword (or to locations withinevents where that keyword is located, other location identifiers, etc.).When an indexer subsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexercan access the keyword index to quickly identify events containing thekeyword.

In some embodiments, the keyword index may include entries forname-value pairs found in events, where a name-value pair can include apair of keywords connected by a symbol, such as an equals sign or colon.This way, events containing these name-value pairs can be quicklylocated. In some embodiments, fields can automatically be generated forsome or all of the name-value pairs at the time of indexing. Forexample, if the string “dest=10.0.1.2” is found in an event, a fieldnamed “dest” may be created for the event, and assigned a value of“10.0.1.2”.

At block 318, the indexer stores the events with an associated timestampin a data store 208. Timestamps enable a user to search for events basedon a time range. In one embodiment, the stored events are organized into“buckets,” where each bucket stores events associated with a specifictime range based on the timestamps associated with each event. This maynot only improve time-based searching, but also allows for events withrecent timestamps, which may have a higher likelihood of being accessed,to be stored in a faster memory to facilitate faster retrieval. Forexample, buckets containing the most recent events can be stored inflash memory rather than on a hard disk.

Each indexer 206 may be responsible for storing and searching a subsetof the events contained in a corresponding data store 208. Bydistributing events among the indexers and data stores, the indexers cananalyze events for a query in parallel. For example, using map-reducetechniques, each indexer returns partial responses for a subset ofevents to a search head that combines the results to produce an answerfor the query. By storing events in buckets for specific time ranges, anindexer may further optimize data retrieval process by searching bucketscorresponding to time ranges that are relevant to a query.

Moreover, events and buckets can also be replicated across differentindexers and data stores to facilitate high availability and disasterrecovery as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,812,entitled “SITE-BASED SEARCH AFFINITY”, filed on 30 Apr. 2014, and inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,817, entitled “MULTI-SITECLUSTERING” also filed on 30 Apr. 2014, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

2.6. Query Processing

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates an example process that asearch head and one or more indexers may perform during a search query.At block 402, a search head receives a search query from a client. Atblock 404, the search head analyzes the search query to determine whatportion(s) of the query can be delegated to indexers and what portionsof the query can be executed locally by the search head. At block 406,the search head distributes the determined portions of the query to theappropriate indexers. In an embodiment, a search head cluster may takethe place of an independent search head where each search head in thesearch head cluster coordinates with peer search heads in the searchhead cluster to schedule jobs, replicate search results, updateconfigurations, fulfill search requests, etc. In an embodiment, thesearch head (or each search head) communicates with a master node (alsoknown as a cluster master, not shown in Fig.) that provides the searchhead with a list of indexers to which the search head can distribute thedetermined portions of the query. The master node maintains a list ofactive indexers and can also designate which indexers may haveresponsibility for responding to queries over certain sets of events. Asearch head may communicate with the master node before the search headdistributes queries to indexers to discover the addresses of activeindexers.

At block 408, the indexers to which the query was distributed, searchdata stores associated with them for events that are responsive to thequery. To determine which events are responsive to the query, theindexer searches for events that match the criteria specified in thequery. These criteria can include matching keywords or specific valuesfor certain fields. The searching operations at block 408 may use thelate-binding schema to extract values for specified fields from eventsat the time the query is processed. In an embodiment, one or more rulesfor extracting field values may be specified as part of a source typedefinition. The indexers may then either send the relevant events backto the search head, or use the events to determine a partial result, andsend the partial result back to the search head.

At block 410, the search head combines the partial results and/or eventsreceived from the indexers to produce a final result for the query. Thisfinal result may comprise different types of data depending on what thequery requested. For example, the results can include a listing ofmatching events returned by the query, or some type of visualization ofthe data from the returned events. In another example, the final resultcan include one or more calculated values derived from the matchingevents.

The results generated by the system 108 can be returned to a clientusing different techniques. For example, one technique streams resultsor relevant events back to a client in real-time as they are identified.Another technique waits to report the results to the client until acomplete set of results (which may include a set of relevant events or aresult based on relevant events) is ready to return to the client. Yetanother technique streams interim results or relevant events back to theclient in real-time until a complete set of results is ready, and thenreturns the complete set of results to the client. In another technique,certain results are stored as “search jobs” and the client may retrievethe results by referring the search jobs.

The search head can also perform various operations to make the searchmore efficient. For example, before the search head begins execution ofa query, the search head can determine a time range for the query and aset of common keywords that all matching events include. The search headmay then use these parameters to query the indexers to obtain a supersetof the eventual results. Then, during a filtering stage, the search headcan perform field-extraction operations on the superset to produce areduced set of search results. This speeds up queries that are performedon a periodic basis.

2.7 Field Extraction

The search head 210 allows users to search and visualize event dataextracted from raw machine data received from homogenous data sources.It also allows users to search and visualize event data extracted fromraw machine data received from heterogeneous data sources. The searchhead 210 includes various mechanisms, which may additionally reside inan indexer 206, for processing a query. Splunk Processing Language(SPL), used in conjunction with the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, can beutilized to make a query. SPL is a pipelined search language in which aset of inputs is operated on by a first command in a command line, andthen a subsequent command following the pipe symbol “1” operates on theresults produced by the first command, and so on for additionalcommands. Other query languages, such as the Structured Query Language(“SQL”), can be used to create a query.

In response to receiving the search query, search head 210 usesextraction rules to extract values for the fields associated with afield or fields in the event data being searched. The search head 210obtains extraction rules that specify how to extract a value for certainfields from an event. Extraction rules can comprise regex rules thatspecify how to extract values for the relevant fields. In addition tospecifying how to extract field values, the extraction rules may alsoinclude instructions for deriving a field value by performing a functionon a character string or value retrieved by the extraction rule. Forexample, a transformation rule may truncate a character string, orconvert the character string into a different data format. In somecases, the query itself can specify one or more extraction rules.

The search head 210 can apply the extraction rules to event data that itreceives from indexers 206. Indexers 206 may apply the extraction rulesto events in an associated data store 208. Extraction rules can beapplied to all the events in a data store, or to a subset of the eventsthat have been filtered based on some criteria (e.g., event time stampvalues, etc.). Extraction rules can be used to extract one or morevalues for a field from events by parsing the event data and examiningthe event data for one or more patterns of characters, numbers,delimiters, etc., that indicate where the field begins and, optionally,ends.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of raw machine data received fromdisparate data sources. In this example, a user submits an order formerchandise using a vendor's shopping application program 501 running onthe user's system. In this example, the order was not delivered to thevendor's server due to a resource exception at the destination serverthat is detected by the middleware code 502. The user then sends amessage to the customer support 503 to complain about the order failingto complete. The three systems 501, 502, and 503 are disparate systemsthat do not have a common logging format. The order application 501sends log data 504 to the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system in one format, themiddleware code 502 sends error log data 505 in a second format, and thesupport server 503 sends log data 506 in a third format.

Using the log data received at one or more indexers 206 from the threesystems the vendor can uniquely obtain an insight into user activity,user experience, and system behavior. The search head 210 allows thevendor's administrator to search the log data from the three systemsthat one or more indexers 206 are responsible for searching, therebyobtaining correlated information, such as the order number andcorresponding customer ID number of the person placing the order. Thesystem also allows the administrator to see a visualization of relatedevents via a user interface. The administrator can query the search head210 for customer ID field value matches across the log data from thethree systems that are stored at the one or more indexers 206. Thecustomer ID field value exists in the data gathered from the threesystems, but the customer ID field value may be located in differentareas of the data given differences in the architecture of thesystems—there is a semantic relationship between the customer ID fieldvalues generated by the three systems. The search head 210 requestsevent data from the one or more indexers 206 to gather relevant eventdata from the three systems. It then applies extraction rules to theevent data in order to extract field values that it can correlate. Thesearch head may apply a different extraction rule to each set of eventsfrom each system when the event data format differs among systems. Inthis example, the user interface can display to the administrator theevent data corresponding to the common customer ID field values 507,508, and 509, thereby providing the administrator with insight into acustomer's experience.

Note that query results can be returned to a client, a search head, orany other system component for further processing. In general, queryresults may include a set of one or more events, a set of one or morevalues obtained from the events, a subset of the values, statisticscalculated based on the values, a report containing the values, or avisualization, such as a graph or chart, generated from the values.

2.8. Example Search Screen

FIG. 6A illustrates an example search screen 600 in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments. Search screen 600 includes a search bar 602 thataccepts user input in the form of a search string. It also includes atime range picker 612 that enables the user to specify a time range forthe search. For “historical searches” the user can select a specifictime range, or alternatively a relative time range, such as “today,”“yesterday” or “last week.” For “real-time searches,” the user canselect the size of a preceding time window to search for real-timeevents. Search screen 600 also initially displays a “data summary”dialog as is illustrated in FIG. 6B that enables the user to selectdifferent sources for the event data, such as by selecting specifichosts and log files.

After the search is executed, the search screen 600 in FIG. 6A candisplay the results through search results tabs 604, wherein searchresults tabs 604 includes: an “events tab” that displays variousinformation about events returned by the search; a “statistics tab” thatdisplays statistics about the search results; and a “visualization tab”that displays various visualizations of the search results. The eventstab illustrated in FIG. 6A displays a timeline graph 605 thatgraphically illustrates the number of events that occurred in one-hourintervals over the selected time range. It also displays an events list608 that enables a user to view the raw data in each of the returnedevents. It additionally displays a fields sidebar 606 that includesstatistics about occurrences of specific fields in the returned events,including “selected fields” that are pre-selected by the user, and“interesting fields” that are automatically selected by the system basedon pre-specified criteria.

2.9. Data Models

A data model is a hierarchically structured search-time mapping ofsemantic knowledge about one or more datasets. It encodes the domainknowledge necessary to build a variety of specialized searches of thosedatasets. Those searches, in turn, can be used to generate reports.

A data model is composed of one or more “objects” (or “data modelobjects”) that define or otherwise correspond to a specific set of data.

Objects in data models can be arranged hierarchically in parent/childrelationships. Each child object represents a subset of the datasetcovered by its parent object. The top-level objects in data models arecollectively referred to as “root objects.”

Child objects have inheritance. Data model objects are defined bycharacteristics that mostly break down into constraints and attributes.Child objects inherit constraints and attributes from their parentobjects and have additional constraints and attributes of their own.Child objects provide a way of filtering events from parent objects.Because a child object always provides an additional constraint inaddition to the constraints it has inherited from its parent object, thedataset it represents is always a subset of the dataset that its parentrepresents.

For example, a first data model object may define a broad set of datapertaining to e-mail activity generally, and another data model objectmay define specific datasets within the broad dataset, such as a subsetof the e-mail data pertaining specifically to e-mails sent. Examples ofdata models can include electronic mail, authentication, databases,intrusion detection, malware, application state, alerts, computeinventory, network sessions, network traffic, performance, audits,updates, vulnerabilities, etc. Data models and their objects can bedesigned by knowledge managers in an organization, and they can enabledownstream users to quickly focus on a specific set of data. Forexample, a user can simply select an “e-mail activity” data model objectto access a dataset relating to e-mails generally (e.g., sent orreceived), or select an “e-mails sent” data model object (or datasub-model object) to access a dataset relating to e-mails sent.

A data model object may be defined by (1) a set of search constraints,and (2) a set of fields. Thus, a data model object can be used toquickly search data to identify a set of events and to identify a set offields to be associated with the set of events. For example, an “e-mailssent” data model object may specify a search for events relating toe-mails that have been sent, and specify a set of fields that areassociated with the events. Thus, a user can retrieve and use the“e-mails sent” data model object to quickly search source data forevents relating to sent e-mails, and may be provided with a listing ofthe set of fields relevant to the events in a user interface screen.

A child of the parent data model may be defined by a search (typically anarrower search) that produces a subset of the events that would beproduced by the parent data model's search. The child's set of fieldscan include a subset of the set of fields of the parent data modeland/or additional fields. Data model objects that reference the subsetscan be arranged in a hierarchical manner, so that child subsets ofevents are proper subsets of their parents. A user iteratively applies amodel development tool (not shown in Fig.) to prepare a query thatdefines a subset of events and assigns an object name to that subset. Achild subset is created by further limiting a query that generated aparent subset. A late-binding schema of field extraction rules isassociated with each object or subset in the data model.

Data definitions in associated schemas can be taken from the commoninformation model (CIM) or can be devised for a particular schema andoptionally added to the CIM. Child objects inherit fields from parentsand can include fields not present in parents. A model developer canselect fewer extraction rules than are available for the sourcesreturned by the query that defines events belonging to a model.Selecting a limited set of extraction rules can be a tool forsimplifying and focusing the data model, while allowing a userflexibility to explore the data subset. Development of a data model isfurther explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,788,525 and 8,788,526, bothentitled “DATA MODEL FOR MACHINE DATA FOR SEMANTIC SEARCH”, both issuedon 22 Jul. 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 8,983,994, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATAMODEL FOR SEARCHING MACHINE DATA”, issued on 17 Mar. 2015, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/611,232, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODELAPPLIED TO QUERIES”, filed on 31 Jan. 2015, and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/815,884, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODEL APPLIED TOOBJECT QUERIES”, filed on 31 Jul. 2015, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. See, also,Knowledge Manager Manual, Build a Data Model, Splunk Enterprise 6.1.3pp. 150-204 (Aug. 25, 2014).

A data model can also include reports. One or more report formats can beassociated with a particular data model and be made available to runagainst the data model. A user can use child objects to design reportswith object datasets that already have extraneous data pre-filtered out.In an embodiment, the data intake and query system 108 provides the userwith the ability to produce reports (e.g., a table, chart,visualization, etc.) without having to enter SPL, SQL, or other querylanguage terms into a search screen. Data models are used as the basisfor the search feature.

Data models may be selected in a report generation interface. The reportgenerator supports drag-and-drop organization of fields to be summarizedin a report. When a model is selected, the fields with availableextraction rules are made available for use in the report. The user mayrefine and/or filter search results to produce more precise reports. Theuser may select some fields for organizing the report and select otherfields for providing detail according to the report organization. Forexample, “region” and “salesperson” are fields used for organizing thereport and sales data can be summarized (subtotaled and totaled) withinthis organization. The report generator allows the user to specify oneor more fields within events and apply statistical analysis on valuesextracted from the specified one or more fields. The report generatormay aggregate search results across sets of events and generatestatistics based on aggregated search results. Building reports usingthe report generation interface is further explained in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/503,335, entitled “GENERATING REPORTS FROMUNSTRUCTURED DATA”, filed on 30 Sep. 2014, and which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes, and in PivotManual, Splunk Enterprise 6.1.3 (Aug. 4, 2014). Data visualizations alsocan be generated in a variety of formats, by reference to the datamodel. Reports, data visualizations, and data model objects can be savedand associated with the data model for future use. The data model objectmay be used to perform searches of other data.

FIGS. 12, 13, and 7A-7D illustrate a series of user interface screenswhere a user may select report generation options using data models. Thereport generation process may be driven by a predefined data modelobject, such as a data model object defined and/or saved via a reportingapplication or a data model object obtained from another source. A usercan load a saved data model object using a report editor. For example,the initial search query and fields used to drive the report editor maybe obtained from a data model object. The data model object that is usedto drive a report generation process may define a search and a set offields. Upon loading of the data model object, the report generationprocess may enable a user to use the fields (e.g., the fields defined bythe data model object) to define criteria for a report (e.g., filters,split rows/columns, aggregates, etc.) and the search may be used toidentify events (e.g., to identify events responsive to the search) usedto generate the report. That is, for example, if a data model object isselected to drive a report editor, the graphical user interface of thereport editor may enable a user to define reporting criteria for thereport using the fields associated with the selected data model object,and the events used to generate the report may be constrained to theevents that match, or otherwise satisfy, the search constraints of theselected data model object.

The selection of a data model object for use in driving a reportgeneration may be facilitated by a data model object selectioninterface. FIG. 12 illustrates an example interactive data modelselection graphical user interface 1200 of a report editor that displaysa listing of available data models 1201. The user may select one of thedata models 1202.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example data model object selection graphicaluser interface 1300 that displays available data objects 1301 for theselected data object model 1202. The user may select one of thedisplayed data model objects 1302 for use in driving the reportgeneration process.

Once a data model object is selected by the user, a user interfacescreen 700 shown in FIG. 7A may display an interactive listing ofautomatic field identification options 701 based on the selected datamodel object. For example, a user may select one of the threeillustrated options (e.g., the “All Fields” option 702, the “SelectedFields” option 703, or the “Coverage” option (e.g., fields with at leasta specified % of coverage) 704). If the user selects the “All Fields”option 702, all of the fields identified from the events that werereturned in response to an initial search query may be selected. Thatis, for example, all of the fields of the identified data model objectfields may be selected. If the user selects the “Selected Fields” option703, only the fields from the fields of the identified data model objectfields that are selected by the user may be used. If the user selectsthe “Coverage” option 704, only the fields of the identified data modelobject fields meeting a specified coverage criteria may be selected. Apercent coverage may refer to the percentage of events returned by theinitial search query that a given field appears in. Thus, for example,if an object dataset includes 10,000 events returned in response to aninitial search query, and the “avg_age” field appears in 854 of those10,000 events, then the “avg_age” field would have a coverage of 8.54%for that object dataset. If, for example, the user selects the“Coverage” option and specifies a coverage value of 2%, only fieldshaving a coverage value equal to or greater than 2% may be selected. Thenumber of fields corresponding to each selectable option may bedisplayed in association with each option. For example, “97” displayednext to the “All Fields” option 702 indicates that 97 fields will beselected if the “All Fields” option is selected. The “3” displayed nextto the “Selected Fields” option 703 indicates that 3 of the 97 fieldswill be selected if the “Selected Fields” option is selected. The “49”displayed next to the “Coverage” option 704 indicates that 49 of the 97fields (e.g., the 49 fields having a coverage of 2% or greater) will beselected if the “Coverage” option is selected. The number of fieldscorresponding to the “Coverage” option may be dynamically updated basedon the specified percent of coverage.

FIG. 7B illustrates an example graphical user interface screen (alsocalled the pivot interface) 705 displaying the reporting application's“Report Editor” page. The screen may display interactive elements fordefining various elements of a report. For example, the page includes a“Filters” element 706, a “Split Rows” element 707, a “Split Columns”element 708, and a “Column Values” element 709. The page may include alist of search results 711. In this example, the Split Rows element 707is expanded, revealing a listing of fields 710 that can be used todefine additional criteria (e.g., reporting criteria). The listing offields 710 may correspond to the selected fields (attributes). That is,the listing of fields 710 may list only the fields previously selected,either automatically and/or manually by a user. FIG. 7C illustrates aformatting dialogue 712 that may be displayed upon selecting a fieldfrom the listing of fields 710. The dialogue can be used to format thedisplay of the results of the selection (e.g., label the column to bedisplayed as “component”).

FIG. 7D illustrates an example graphical user interface screen 705including a table of results 713 based on the selected criteriaincluding splitting the rows by the “component” field. A column 714having an associated count for each component listed in the table may bedisplayed that indicates an aggregate count of the number of times thatthe particular field-value pair (e.g., the value in a row) occurs in theset of events responsive to the initial search query.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example graphical user interface screen 1400 thatallows the user to filter search results and to perform statisticalanalysis on values extracted from specific fields in the set of events.In this example, the top ten product names ranked by price are selectedas a filter 1401 that causes the display of the ten most popularproducts sorted by price. Each row is displayed by product name andprice 1402. This results in each product displayed in a column labeled“product name” along with an associated price in a column labeled“price” 1406. Statistical analysis of other fields in the eventsassociated with the ten most popular products have been specified ascolumn values 1403. A count of the number of successful purchases foreach product is displayed in column 1404. This statistics may beproduced by filtering the search results by the product name, findingall occurrences of a successful purchase in a field within the eventsand generating a total of the number of occurrences. A sum of the totalsales is displayed in column 1405, which is a result of themultiplication of the price and the number of successful purchases foreach product.

The reporting application allows the user to create graphicalvisualizations of the statistics generated for a report. For example,FIG. 15 illustrates an example graphical user interface 1500 thatdisplays a set of components and associated statistics 1501. Thereporting application allows the user to select a visualization of thestatistics in a graph (e.g., bar chart, scatter plot, area chart, linechart, pie chart, radial gauge, marker gauge, filler gauge, etc.). FIG.16 illustrates an example of a bar chart visualization 1600 of an aspectof the statistical data 1501. FIG. 17 illustrates a scatter plotvisualization 1700 of an aspect of the statistical data 1501.

2.10. Acceleration Techniques

The above-described system provides significant flexibility by enablinga user to analyze massive quantities of minimally processed data “on thefly” at search time instead of storing pre-specified portions of thedata in a database at ingestion time. This flexibility enables a user tosee valuable insights, correlate data, and perform subsequent queries toexamine interesting aspects of the data that may not have been apparentat ingestion time.

However, performing extraction and analysis operations at search timecan involve a large amount of data and require a large number ofcomputational operations, which can cause delays in processing thequeries. Advantageously, SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system employs a number ofunique acceleration techniques that have been developed to speed upanalysis operations performed at search time. These techniques include:(1) performing search operations in parallel across multiple indexers;(2) using a keyword index; (3) using a high performance analytics store;and (4) accelerating the process of generating reports. These noveltechniques are described in more detail below.

2.10.1. Aggregation Technique

To facilitate faster query processing, a query can be structured suchthat multiple indexers perform the query in parallel, while aggregationof search results from the multiple indexers is performed locally at thesearch head. For example, FIG. 8 illustrates how a search query 802received from a client at a search head 210 can split into two phases,including: (1) subtasks 804 (e.g., data retrieval or simple filtering)that may be performed in parallel by indexers 206 for execution, and (2)a search results aggregation operation 806 to be executed by the searchhead when the results are ultimately collected from the indexers.

During operation, upon receiving search query 802, a search head 210determines that a portion of the operations involved with the searchquery may be performed locally by the search head. The search headmodifies search query 802 by substituting “stats” (create aggregatestatistics over results sets received from the indexers at the searchhead) with “prestats” (create statistics by the indexer from localresults set) to produce search query 804, and then distributes searchquery 804 to distributed indexers, which are also referred to as “searchpeers.” Note that search queries may generally specify search criteriaor operations to be performed on events that meet the search criteria.Search queries may also specify field names, as well as search criteriafor the values in the fields or operations to be performed on the valuesin the fields. Moreover, the search head may distribute the full searchquery to the search peers as illustrated in FIG. 4, or may alternativelydistribute a modified version (e.g., a more restricted version) of thesearch query to the search peers. In this example, the indexers areresponsible for producing the results and sending them to the searchhead. After the indexers return the results to the search head, thesearch head aggregates the received results 806 to form a single searchresult set. By executing the query in this manner, the systemeffectively distributes the computational operations across the indexerswhile minimizing data transfers.

2.10.2. Keyword Index

As described above with reference to the flow charts in FIG. 3 and FIG.4, data intake and query system 108 can construct and maintain one ormore keyword indices to quickly identify events containing specifickeywords. This technique can greatly speed up the processing of queriesinvolving specific keywords. As mentioned above, to build a keywordindex, an indexer first identifies a set of keywords. Then, the indexerincludes the identified keywords in an index, which associates eachstored keyword with references to events containing that keyword, or tolocations within events where that keyword is located. When an indexersubsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexer can access thekeyword index to quickly identify events containing the keyword.

2.10.3. High-Performance Analytics Store

To speed up certain types of queries, some embodiments of system 108create a high performance analytics store, which is referred to as a“summarization table,” that contains entries for specific field-valuepairs. Each of these entries keeps track of instances of a specificvalue in a specific field in the event data and includes references toevents containing the specific value in the specific field. For example,an example entry in a summarization table can keep track of occurrencesof the value “94107” in a “ZIP code” field of a set of events and theentry includes references to all of the events that contain the value“94107” in the ZIP code field. This optimization technique enables thesystem to quickly process queries that seek to determine how many eventshave a particular value for a particular field. To this end, the systemcan examine the entry in the summarization table to count instances ofthe specific value in the field without having to go through theindividual events or perform data extractions at search time. Also, ifthe system needs to process all events that have a specific field-valuecombination, the system can use the references in the summarizationtable entry to directly access the events to extract further informationwithout having to search all of the events to find the specificfield-value combination at search time.

In some embodiments, the system maintains a separate summarization tablefor each of the above-described time-specific buckets that stores eventsfor a specific time range. A bucket-specific summarization tableincludes entries for specific field-value combinations that occur inevents in the specific bucket. Alternatively, the system can maintain aseparate summarization table for each indexer. The indexer-specificsummarization table includes entries for the events in a data store thatare managed by the specific indexer. Indexer-specific summarizationtables may also be bucket-specific.

The summarization table can be populated by running a periodic querythat scans a set of events to find instances of a specific field-valuecombination, or alternatively instances of all field-value combinationsfor a specific field. A periodic query can be initiated by a user, orcan be scheduled to occur automatically at specific time intervals. Aperiodic query can also be automatically launched in response to a querythat asks for a specific field-value combination.

In some cases, when the summarization tables may not cover all of theevents that are relevant to a query, the system can use thesummarization tables to obtain partial results for the events that arecovered by summarization tables, but may also have to search throughother events that are not covered by the summarization tables to produceadditional results. These additional results can then be combined withthe partial results to produce a final set of results for the query. Thesummarization table and associated techniques are described in moredetail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,682,925, entitled “DISTRIBUTED HIGHPERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE”, issued on 25 Mar. 2014, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/170,159, entitled “SUPPLEMENTING A HIGHPERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE WITH EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL EVENTS TORESPOND TO AN EVENT QUERY”, filed on 31 Jan. 2014, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/815,973, entitled “STORAGE MEDIUM AND CONTROLDEVICE”, filed on 21 Feb. 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

2.10.4. Accelerating Report Generation

In some embodiments, a data server system such as the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEsystem can accelerate the process of periodically generating updatedreports based on query results. To accelerate this process, asummarization engine automatically examines the query to determinewhether generation of updated reports can be accelerated by creatingintermediate summaries. If reports can be accelerated, the summarizationengine periodically generates a summary covering data obtained during alatest non-overlapping time period. For example, where the query seeksevents meeting a specified criteria, a summary for the time periodincludes only events within the time period that meet the specifiedcriteria. Similarly, if the query seeks statistics calculated from theevents, such as the number of events that match the specified criteria,then the summary for the time period includes the number of events inthe period that match the specified criteria.

In addition to the creation of the summaries, the summarization engineschedules the periodic updating of the report associated with the query.During each scheduled report update, the query engine determines whetherintermediate summaries have been generated covering portions of the timeperiod covered by the report update. If so, then the report is generatedbased on the information contained in the summaries. Also, if additionalevent data has been received and has not yet been summarized, and isrequired to generate the complete report, the query can be run on thisadditional event data. Then, the results returned by this query on theadditional event data, along with the partial results obtained from theintermediate summaries, can be combined to generate the updated report.This process is repeated each time the report is updated. Alternatively,if the system stores events in buckets covering specific time ranges,then the summaries can be generated on a bucket-by-bucket basis. Notethat producing intermediate summaries can save the work involved inre-running the query for previous time periods, so advantageously onlythe newer event data needs to be processed while generating an updatedreport. These report acceleration techniques are described in moredetail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,589,403, entitled “COMPRESSED JOURNALING INEVENT TRACKING FILES FOR METADATA RECOVERY AND REPLICATION”, issued on19 Nov. 2013, U.S. Pat. No. 8,412,696, entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING ANDREPORTING”, issued on 2 Apr. 2011, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,589,375 and8,589,432, both also entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING AND REPORTING”, bothissued on 19 Nov. 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

2.11. Security Features

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform provides various schemas, dashboards andvisualizations that simplify developers' task to create applicationswith additional capabilities. One such application is the SPLUNK® APPFOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY, which performs monitoring and alertingoperations and includes analytics to facilitate identifying both knownand unknown security threats based on large volumes of data stored bythe SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system. SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITYprovides the security practitioner with visibility intosecurity-relevant threats found in the enterprise infrastructure bycapturing, monitoring, and reporting on data from enterprise securitydevices, systems, and applications. Through the use of SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE searching and reporting capabilities, SPLUNK® APP FORENTERPRISE SECURITY provides a top-down and bottom-up view of anorganization's security posture.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY leverages SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEsearch-time normalization techniques, saved searches, and correlationsearches to provide visibility into security-relevant threats andactivity and generate notable events for tracking. The App enables thesecurity practitioner to investigate and explore the data to find new orunknown threats that do not follow signature-based patterns.

Conventional Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systemsthat lack the infrastructure to effectively store and analyze largevolumes of security-related data. Traditional SIEM systems typically usefixed schemas to extract data from pre-defined security-related fieldsat data ingestion time and storing the extracted data in a relationaldatabase. This traditional data extraction process (and associatedreduction in data size) that occurs at data ingestion time inevitablyhampers future incident investigations that may need original data todetermine the root cause of a security issue, or to detect the onset ofan impending security threat.

In contrast, the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY system stores largevolumes of minimally processed security-related data at ingestion timefor later retrieval and analysis at search time when a live securitythreat is being investigated. To facilitate this data retrieval process,the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY provides pre-specified schemasfor extracting relevant values from the different types ofsecurity-related event data and enables a user to define such schemas.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY can process many types ofsecurity-related information. In general, this security-relatedinformation can include any information that can be used to identifysecurity threats. For example, the security-related information caninclude network-related information, such as IP addresses, domain names,asset identifiers, network traffic volume, uniform resource locatorstrings, and source addresses. The process of detecting security threatsfor network-related information is further described in U.S. Pat. No.8,826,434, entitled “SECURITY THREAT DETECTION BASED ON INDICATIONS INBIG DATA OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, issued on 2 Sep. 2014,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/956,252, entitled “INVESTIGATIVE ANDDYNAMIC DETECTION OF POTENTIAL SECURITY-THREAT INDICATORS FROM EVENTS INBIG DATA”, filed on 31 Jul. 2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/445,018, entitled “GRAPHIC DISPLAY OF SECURITY THREATS BASED ONINDICATIONS OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, filed on 28 Jul.2014, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/445,023, entitled “SECURITYTHREAT DETECTION OF NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, filed on 28 Jul. 2014,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/815,971, entitled “SECURITY THREATDETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME ACCESSES”, filed on 1 Aug. 2015, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/815,972, entitled “SECURITY THREATDETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS”, filed on 1 Aug. 2015, eachof which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes. Security-related information can also include malwareinfection data and system configuration information, as well as accesscontrol information, such as login/logout information and access failurenotifications. The security-related information can originate fromvarious sources within a data center, such as hosts, virtual machines,storage devices and sensors. The security-related information can alsooriginate from various sources in a network, such as routers, switches,email servers, proxy servers, gateways, firewalls andintrusion-detection systems.

During operation, the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY facilitatesdetecting “notable events” that are likely to indicate a securitythreat. These notable events can be detected in a number of ways: (1) auser can notice a correlation in the data and can manually identify acorresponding group of one or more events as “notable;” or (2) a usercan define a “correlation search” specifying criteria for a notableevent, and every time one or more events satisfy the criteria, theapplication can indicate that the one or more events are notable. A usercan alternatively select a pre-defined correlation search provided bythe application. Note that correlation searches can be run continuouslyor at regular intervals (e.g., every hour) to search for notable events.Upon detection, notable events can be stored in a dedicated “notableevents index,” which can be subsequently accessed to generate variousvisualizations containing security-related information. Also, alerts canbe generated to notify system operators when important notable eventsare discovered.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY provides various visualizationsto aid in discovering security threats, such as a “key indicators view”that enables a user to view security metrics, such as counts ofdifferent types of notable events. For example, FIG. 9A illustrates anexample key indicators view 900 that comprises a dashboard, which candisplay a value 901, for various security-related metrics, such asmalware infections 902. It can also display a change in a metric value903, which indicates that the number of malware infections increased by63 during the preceding interval. Key indicators view 900 additionallydisplays a histogram panel 904 that displays a histogram of notableevents organized by urgency values, and a histogram of notable eventsorganized by time intervals. This key indicators view is described infurther detail in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/956,338,entitled “KEY INDICATORS VIEW”, filed on 31 Jul. 2013, and which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

These visualizations can also include an “incident review dashboard”that enables a user to view and act on “notable events.” These notableevents can include: (1) a single event of high importance, such as anyactivity from a known web attacker; or (2) multiple events thatcollectively warrant review, such as a large number of authenticationfailures on a host followed by a successful authentication. For example,FIG. 9B illustrates an example incident review dashboard 910 thatincludes a set of incident attribute fields 911 that, for example,enables a user to specify a time range field 912 for the displayedevents. It also includes a timeline 913 that graphically illustrates thenumber of incidents that occurred in time intervals over the selectedtime range. It additionally displays an events list 914 that enables auser to view a list of all of the notable events that match the criteriain the incident attributes fields 911. To facilitate identifyingpatterns among the notable events, each notable event can be associatedwith an urgency value (e.g., low, medium, high, critical), which isindicated in the incident review dashboard. The urgency value for adetected event can be determined based on the severity of the event andthe priority of the system component associated with the event.

2.12. Data Center Monitoring

As mentioned above, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform provides variousfeatures that simplify the developer's task to create variousapplications. One such application is SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® thatprovides operational visibility into granular performance metrics, logs,tasks and events, and topology from hosts, virtual machines and virtualcenters. It empowers administrators with an accurate real-time pictureof the health of the environment, proactively identifying performanceand capacity bottlenecks.

Conventional data-center-monitoring systems lack the infrastructure toeffectively store and analyze large volumes of machine-generated data,such as performance information and log data obtained from the datacenter. In conventional data-center-monitoring systems,machine-generated data is typically pre-processed prior to being stored,for example, by extracting pre-specified data items and storing them ina database to facilitate subsequent retrieval and analysis at searchtime. However, the rest of the data is not saved and discarded duringpre-processing.

In contrast, the SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® stores large volumes ofminimally processed machine data, such as performance information andlog data, at ingestion time for later retrieval and analysis at searchtime when a live performance issue is being investigated. In addition todata obtained from various log files, this performance-relatedinformation can include values for performance metrics obtained throughan application programming interface (API) provided as part of thevSphere Hypervisor™ system distributed by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto,Calif. For example, these performance metrics can include: (1)CPU-related performance metrics; (2) disk-related performance metrics;(3) memory-related performance metrics; (4) network-related performancemetrics; (5) energy-usage statistics; (6) data-traffic-relatedperformance metrics; (7) overall system availability performancemetrics; (8) cluster-related performance metrics; and (9) virtualmachine performance statistics. Such performance metrics are describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/167,316, entitled “CORRELATIONFOR USER-SELECTED TIME RANGES OF VALUES FOR PERFORMANCE METRICS OFCOMPONENTS IN AN INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT WITH LOG DATA FROMTHAT INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT”, filed on 29 Jan. 2014, andwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes.

To facilitate retrieving information of interest from performance dataand log files, the SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® provides pre-specifiedschemas for extracting relevant values from different types ofperformance-related event data, and also enables a user to define suchschemas.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® additionally provides various visualizationsto facilitate detecting and diagnosing the root cause of performanceproblems. For example, one such visualization is a “proactive monitoringtree” that enables a user to easily view and understand relationshipsamong various factors that affect the performance of a hierarchicallystructured computing system. This proactive monitoring tree enables auser to easily navigate the hierarchy by selectively expanding nodesrepresenting various entities (e.g., virtual centers or computingclusters) to view performance information for lower-level nodesassociated with lower-level entities (e.g., virtual machines or hostsystems). Example node-expansion operations are illustrated in FIG. 9C,wherein nodes 933 and 934 are selectively expanded. Note that nodes931-939 can be displayed using different patterns or colors to representdifferent performance states, such as a critical state, a warning state,a normal state or an unknown/offline state. The ease of navigationprovided by selective expansion in combination with the associatedperformance-state information enables a user to quickly diagnose theroot cause of a performance problem. The proactive monitoring tree isdescribed in further detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/253,490, entitled “PROACTIVE MONITORING TREE WITH SEVERITY STATESORTING”, filed on 15 Apr. 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/812,948, also entitled “PROACTIVE MONITORING TREE WITH SEVERITY STATESORTING”, filed on 29 Jul. 2015, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety for all purposes.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® also provides a user interface that enablesa user to select a specific time range and then view heterogeneous datacomprising events, log data, and associated performance metrics for theselected time range. For example, the screen illustrated in FIG. 9Ddisplays a listing of recent “tasks and events” and a listing of recent“log entries” for a selected time range above a performance-metric graphfor “average CPU core utilization” for the selected time range. Notethat a user is able to operate pull-down menus 942 to selectivelydisplay different performance metric graphs for the selected time range.This enables the user to correlate trends in the performance-metricgraph with corresponding event and log data to quickly determine theroot cause of a performance problem. This user interface is described inmore detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/167,316, entitled“CORRELATION FOR USER-SELECTED TIME RANGES OF VALUES FOR PERFORMANCEMETRICS OF COMPONENTS IN AN INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT WITH LOGDATA FROM THAT INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT”, filed on 29 Jan.2014, and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety forall purposes.

2.13. Cloud-Based System Overview

The example data intake and query system 108 described in reference toFIG. 2 comprises several system components, including one or moreforwarders, indexers, and search heads. In some environments, a user ofa data intake and query system 108 may install and configure, oncomputing devices owned and operated by the user, one or more softwareapplications that implement some or all of these system components. Forexample, a user may install a software application on server computersowned by the user and configure each server to operate as one or more ofa forwarder, an indexer, a search head, etc. This arrangement generallymay be referred to as an “on-premises” solution. That is, the system 108is installed and operates on computing devices directly controlled bythe user of the system. Some users may prefer an on-premises solutionbecause it may provide a greater level of control over the configurationof certain aspects of the system (e.g., security, privacy, standards,controls, etc.). However, other users may instead prefer an arrangementin which the user is not directly responsible for providing and managingthe computing devices upon which various components of system 108operate.

In one embodiment, to provide an alternative to an entirely on-premisesenvironment for system 108, one or more of the components of a dataintake and query system instead may be provided as a cloud-basedservice. In this context, a cloud-based service refers to a servicehosted by one more computing resources that are accessible to end usersover a network, for example, by using a web browser or other applicationon a client device to interface with the remote computing resources. Forexample, a service provider may provide a cloud-based data intake andquery system by managing computing resources configured to implementvarious aspects of the system (e.g., forwarders, indexers, search heads,etc.) and by providing access to the system to end users via a network.Typically, a user may pay a subscription or other fee to use such aservice. Each subscribing user of the cloud-based service may beprovided with an account that enables the user to configure a customizedcloud-based system based on the user's preferences.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example cloud-based dataintake and query system. Similar to the system of FIG. 2, the networkedcomputer system 1000 includes input data sources 202 and forwarders 204.These input data sources and forwarders may be in a subscriber's privatecomputing environment. Alternatively, they might be directly managed bythe service provider as part of the cloud service. In the example system1000, one or more forwarders 204 and client devices 1002 are coupled toa cloud-based data intake and query system 1006 via one or more networks1004. Network 1004 broadly represents one or more LANs, WANs, cellularnetworks, intranetworks, internetworks, etc., using any of wired,wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., and may includethe public Internet, and is used by client devices 1002 and forwarders204 to access the system 1006. Similar to the system of 108, each of theforwarders 204 may be configured to receive data from an input sourceand to forward the data to other components of the system 1006 forfurther processing.

In an embodiment, a cloud-based data intake and query system 1006 maycomprise a plurality of system instances 1008. In general, each systeminstance 1008 may include one or more computing resources managed by aprovider of the cloud-based system 1006 made available to a particularsubscriber. The computing resources comprising a system instance 1008may, for example, include one or more servers or other devicesconfigured to implement one or more forwarders, indexers, search heads,and other components of a data intake and query system, similar tosystem 108. As indicated above, a subscriber may use a web browser orother application of a client device 1002 to access a web portal orother interface that enables the subscriber to configure an instance1008.

Providing a data intake and query system as described in reference tosystem 108 as a cloud-based service presents a number of challenges.Each of the components of a system 108 (e.g., forwarders, indexers andsearch heads) may at times refer to various configuration files storedlocally at each component. These configuration files typically mayinvolve some level of user configuration to accommodate particular typesof data a user desires to analyze and to account for other userpreferences. However, in a cloud-based service context, users typicallymay not have direct access to the underlying computing resourcesimplementing the various system components (e.g., the computingresources comprising each system instance 1008) and may desire to makesuch configurations indirectly, for example, using one or more web-basedinterfaces. Thus, the techniques and systems described herein forproviding user interfaces that enable a user to configure source typedefinitions are applicable to both on-premises and cloud-based servicecontexts, or some combination thereof (e.g., a hybrid system where bothan on-premises environment such as SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE and a cloud-basedenvironment such as SPLUNK CLOUD™ are centrally visible).

2.14. Searching Externally Archived Data

FIG. 11 shows a block diagram of an example of a data intake and querysystem 108 that provides transparent search facilities for data systemsthat are external to the data intake and query system. Such facilitiesare available in the HUNK® system provided by Splunk Inc. of SanFrancisco, Calif. HUNK® represents an analytics platform that enablesbusiness and IT teams to rapidly explore, analyze, and visualize data inHadoop and NoSQL data stores.

The search head 210 of the data intake and query system receives searchrequests from one or more client devices 1104 over network connections1120. As discussed above, the data intake and query system 108 mayreside in an enterprise location, in the cloud, etc. FIG. 11 illustratesthat multiple client devices 1104 a, 1104 b, . . . , 1104 n maycommunicate with the data intake and query system 108. The clientdevices 1104 may communicate with the data intake and query system usinga variety of connections. For example, one client device in FIG. 11 isillustrated as communicating over an Internet (Web) protocol, anotherclient device is illustrated as communicating via a command lineinterface, and another client device is illustrated as communicating viaa system developer kit (SDK).

The search head 210 analyzes the received search request to identifyrequest parameters. If a search request received from one of the clientdevices 1104 references an index maintained by the data intake and querysystem, then the search head 210 connects to one or more indexers 206 ofthe data intake and query system for the index referenced in the requestparameters. That is, if the request parameters of the search requestreference an index, then the search head accesses the data in the indexvia the indexer. The data intake and query system 108 may include one ormore indexers 206, depending on system access resources andrequirements. As described further below, the indexers 206 retrieve datafrom their respective local data stores 208 as specified in the searchrequest. The indexers and their respective data stores can comprise oneor more storage devices and typically reside on the same system, thoughthey may be connected via a local network connection.

If the request parameters of the received search request reference anexternal data collection, which is not accessible to the indexers 206 orunder the management of the data intake and query system, then thesearch head 210 can access the external data collection through anExternal Result Provider (ERP) process 1110. An external data collectionmay be referred to as a “virtual index” (plural, “virtual indices”). AnERP process provides an interface through which the search head 210 mayaccess virtual indices.

Thus, a search reference to an index of the system relates to a locallystored and managed data collection. In contrast, a search reference to avirtual index relates to an externally stored and managed datacollection, which the search head may access through one or more ERPprocesses 1110, 1112. FIG. 11 shows two ERP processes 1110, 1112 thatconnect to respective remote (external) virtual indices, which areindicated as a Hadoop or another system 1114 (e.g., Amazon S3, AmazonEMR, other Hadoop Compatible File Systems (HCFS), etc.) and a relationaldatabase management system (RDBMS) 1116. Other virtual indices mayinclude other file organizations and protocols, such as Structured QueryLanguage (SQL) and the like. The ellipses between the ERP processes1110, 1112 indicate optional additional ERP processes of the data intakeand query system 108. An ERP process may be a computer process that isinitiated or spawned by the search head 210 and is executed by thesearch data intake and query system 108. Alternatively or additionally,an ERP process may be a process spawned by the search head 210 on thesame or different host system as the search head 210 resides.

The search head 210 may spawn a single ERP process in response tomultiple virtual indices referenced in a search request, or the searchhead may spawn different ERP processes for different virtual indices.Generally, virtual indices that share common data configurations orprotocols may share ERP processes. For example, all search queryreferences to a Hadoop file system may be processed by the same ERPprocess, if the ERP process is suitably configured. Likewise, all searchquery references to an SQL database may be processed by the same ERPprocess. In addition, the search head may provide a common ERP processfor common external data source types (e.g., a common vendor may utilizea common ERP process, even if the vendor includes different data storagesystem types, such as Hadoop and SQL). Common indexing schemes also maybe handled by common ERP processes, such as flat text files or Weblogfiles.

The search head 210 determines the number of ERP processes to beinitiated via the use of configuration parameters that are included in asearch request message. Generally, there is a one-to-many relationshipbetween an external results provider “family” and ERP processes. Thereis also a one-to-many relationship between an ERP process andcorresponding virtual indices that are referred to in a search request.For example, using RDBMS, assume two independent instances of such asystem by one vendor, such as one RDBMS for production and another RDBMSused for development. In such a situation, it is likely preferable (butoptional) to use two ERP processes to maintain the independent operationas between production and development data. Both of the ERPs, however,will belong to the same family, because the two RDBMS system types arefrom the same vendor.

The ERP processes 1110, 1112 receive a search request from the searchhead 210. The search head may optimize the received search request forexecution at the respective external virtual index. Alternatively, theERP process may receive a search request as a result of analysisperformed by the search head or by a different system process. The ERPprocesses 1110, 1112 can communicate with the search head 210 viaconventional input/output routines (e.g., standard in/standard out,etc.). In this way, the ERP process receives the search request from aclient device such that the search request may be efficiently executedat the corresponding external virtual index.

The ERP processes 1110, 1112 may be implemented as a process of the dataintake and query system. Each ERP process may be provided by the dataintake and query system, or may be provided by process or applicationproviders who are independent of the data intake and query system. Eachrespective ERP process may include an interface application installed ata computer of the external result provider that ensures propercommunication between the search support system and the external resultprovider. The ERP processes 1110, 1112 generate appropriate searchrequests in the protocol and syntax of the respective virtual indices1114, 1116, each of which corresponds to the search request received bythe search head 210. Upon receiving search results from theircorresponding virtual indices, the respective ERP process passes theresult to the search head 210, which may return or display the resultsor a processed set of results based on the returned results to therespective client device.

Client devices 1104 may communicate with the data intake and querysystem 108 through a network interface 1120, e.g., one or more LANs,WANs, cellular networks, intranetworks, and/or internetworks using anyof wired, wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., andmay include the public Internet.

The analytics platform utilizing the External Result Provider processdescribed in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,738,629, entitled “EXTERNALRESULT PROVIDED PROCESS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED USING A DIFFERENTCONFIGURATION OR PROTOCOL”, issued on 27 May 2014, U.S. Pat. No.8,738,587, entitled “PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST BY RETRIEVINGRESULTS FROM BOTH A NATIVE INDEX AND A VIRTUAL INDEX”, issued on 25 Jul.2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,832, entitled “PROCESSINGA SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST ACROSS DISPARATE DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS”, filedon 1 May 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/449,144, entitled“PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST INCLUDING EXTERNAL DATA SOURCES”,filed on 31 Jul. 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety for all purposes.

2.14.1. ERP Process Features

The ERP processes described above may include two operation modes: astreaming mode and a reporting mode. The ERP processes can operate instreaming mode only, in reporting mode only, or in both modessimultaneously. Operating in both modes simultaneously is referred to asmixed mode operation. In a mixed mode operation, the ERP at some pointcan stop providing the search head with streaming results and onlyprovide reporting results thereafter, or the search head at some pointmay start ignoring streaming results it has been using and only usereporting results thereafter.

The streaming mode returns search results in real time, with minimalprocessing, in response to the search request. The reporting modeprovides results of a search request with processing of the searchresults prior to providing them to the requesting search head, which inturn provides results to the requesting client device. ERP operationwith such multiple modes provides greater performance flexibility withregard to report time, search latency, and resource utilization.

In a mixed mode operation, both streaming mode and reporting mode areoperating simultaneously. The streaming mode results (e.g., the raw dataobtained from the external data source) are provided to the search head,which can then process the results data (e.g., break the raw data intoevents, timestamp it, filter it, etc.) and integrate the results datawith the results data from other external data sources, and/or from datastores of the search head. The search head performs such processing andcan immediately start returning interim (streaming mode) results to theuser at the requesting client device; simultaneously, the search head iswaiting for the ERP process to process the data it is retrieving fromthe external data source as a result of the concurrently executingreporting mode.

In some instances, the ERP process initially operates in a mixed mode,such that the streaming mode operates to enable the ERP quickly toreturn interim results (e.g., some of the raw or unprocessed datanecessary to respond to a search request) to the search head, enablingthe search head to process the interim results and begin providing tothe client or search requester interim results that are responsive tothe query. Meanwhile, in this mixed mode, the ERP also operatesconcurrently in reporting mode, processing portions of raw data in amanner responsive to the search query. Upon determining that it hasresults from the reporting mode available to return to the search head,the ERP may halt processing in the mixed mode at that time (or somelater time) by stopping the return of data in streaming mode to thesearch head and switching to reporting mode only. The ERP at this pointstarts sending interim results in reporting mode to the search head,which in turn may then present this processed data responsive to thesearch request to the client or search requester. Typically the searchhead switches from using results from the ERP's streaming mode ofoperation to results from the ERP's reporting mode of operation when thehigher bandwidth results from the reporting mode outstrip the amount ofdata processed by the search head in the]streaming mode of ERPoperation.

A reporting mode may have a higher bandwidth because the ERP does nothave to spend time transferring data to the search head for processingall the raw data. In addition, the ERP may optionally direct anotherprocessor to do the processing.

The streaming mode of operation does not need to be stopped to gain thehigher bandwidth benefits of a reporting mode; the search head couldsimply stop using the streaming mode results—and start using thereporting mode results—when the bandwidth of the reporting mode hascaught up with or exceeded the amount of bandwidth provided by thestreaming mode. Thus, a variety of triggers and ways to accomplish asearch head's switch from using streaming mode results to usingreporting mode results may be appreciated by one skilled in the art.

The reporting mode can involve the ERP process (or an external system)performing event breaking, time stamping, filtering of events to matchthe search query request, and calculating statistics on the results. Theuser can request particular types of data, such as if the search queryitself involves types of events, or the search request may ask forstatistics on data, such as on events that meet the search request. Ineither case, the search head understands the query language used in thereceived query request, which may be a proprietary language. Oneexamplary query language is Splunk Processing Language (SPL) developedby the assignee of the application, Splunk Inc. The search headtypically understands how to use that language to obtain data from theindexers, which store data in a format used by the SPLUNK® Enterprisesystem.

The ERP processes support the search head, as the search head is notordinarily configured to understand the format in which data is storedin external data sources such as Hadoop or SQL data systems. Rather, theERP process performs that translation from the query submitted in thesearch support system's native format (e.g., SPL if SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEis used as the search support system) to a search query request formatthat will be accepted by the corresponding external data system. Theexternal data system typically stores data in a different format fromthat of the search support system's native index format, and it utilizesa different query language (e.g., SQL or MapReduce, rather than SPL orthe like).

As noted, the ERP process can operate in the streaming mode alone. Afterthe ERP process has performed the translation of the query request andreceived raw results from the streaming mode, the search head canintegrate the returned data with any data obtained from local datasources (e.g., native to the search support system), other external datasources, and other ERP processes (if such operations were required tosatisfy the terms of the search query). An advantage of mixed modeoperation is that, in addition to streaming mode, the ERP process isalso executing concurrently in reporting mode. Thus, the ERP process(rather than the search head) is processing query results (e.g.,performing event breaking, timestamping, filtering, possibly calculatingstatistics if required to be responsive to the search query request,etc.). It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that additionaltime is needed for the ERP process to perform the processing in such aconfiguration. Therefore, the streaming mode will allow the search headto start returning interim results to the user at the client devicebefore the ERP process can complete sufficient processing to startreturning any search results. The switchover between streaming andreporting mode happens when the ERP process determines that theswitchover is appropriate, such as when the ERP process determines itcan begin returning meaningful results from its reporting mode.

The operation described above illustrates the source of operationallatency: streaming mode has low latency (immediate results) and usuallyhas relatively low bandwidth (fewer results can be returned per unit oftime). In contrast, the concurrently running reporting mode hasrelatively high latency (it has to perform a lot more processing beforereturning any results) and usually has relatively high bandwidth (moreresults can be processed per unit of time). For example, when the ERPprocess does begin returning report results, it returns more processedresults than in the streaming mode, because, e.g., statistics only needto be calculated to be responsive to the search request. That is, theERP process doesn't have to take time to first return raw data to thesearch head. As noted, the ERP process could be configured to operate instreaming mode alone and return just the raw data for the search head toprocess in a way that is responsive to the search request.Alternatively, the ERP process can be configured to operate in thereporting mode only. Also, the ERP process can be configured to operatein streaming mode and reporting mode concurrently, as described, withthe ERP process stopping the transmission of streaming results to thesearch head when the concurrently running reporting mode has caught upand started providing results. The reporting mode does not require theprocessing of all raw data that is responsive to the search queryrequest before the ERP process starts returning results; rather, thereporting mode usually performs processing of chunks of events andreturns the processing results to the search head for each chunk.

For example, an ERP process can be configured to merely return thecontents of a search result file verbatim, with little or no processingof results. That way, the search head performs all processing (such asparsing byte streams into events, filtering, etc.). The ERP process canbe configured to perform additional intelligence, such as analyzing thesearch request and handling all the computation that a native searchindexer process would otherwise perform. In this way, the configured ERPprocess provides greater flexibility in features while operatingaccording to desired preferences, such as response latency and resourcerequirements.

2.15. IT Service Monitoring

As previously mentioned, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform providesvarious schemas, dashboards and visualizations that make it easy fordevelopers to create applications to provide additional capabilities.One such application is SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™, which performsmonitoring and alerting operations. It also includes analytics to helpan analyst diagnose the root cause of performance problems based onlarge volumes of data stored by the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system ascorrelated to the various services an IT organization provides (aservice-centric view). This differs significantly from conventional ITmonitoring systems that lack the infrastructure to effectively store andanalyze large volumes of service-related event data. Traditional servicemonitoring systems typically use fixed schemas to extract data frompre-defined fields at data ingestion time, wherein the extracted data istypically stored in a relational database. This data extraction processand associated reduction in data content that occurs at data ingestiontime inevitably hampers future investigations, when all of the originaldata may be needed to determine the root cause of or contributingfactors to a service issue.

In contrast, a SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ system stores largevolumes of minimally-processed service-related data at ingestion timefor later retrieval and analysis at search time, to perform regularmonitoring, or to investigate a service issue. To facilitate this dataretrieval process, SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ enables a user todefine an IT operations infrastructure from the perspective of theservices it provides. In this service-centric approach, a service suchas corporate e-mail may be defined in terms of the entities employed toprovide the service, such as host machines and network devices. Eachentity is defined to include information for identifying all of theevent data that pertains to the entity, whether produced by the entityitself or by another machine, and considering the many various ways theentity may be identified in raw machine data (such as by a URL, an IPaddress, or machine name). The service and entity definitions canorganize event data around a service so that all of the event datapertaining to that service can be easily identified. This capabilityprovides a foundation for the implementation of Key PerformanceIndicators.

One or more Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) are defined for a servicewithin the SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ application. Each KPImeasures an aspect of service performance at a point in time or over aperiod of time (aspect KPI's). Each KPI is defined by a search querythat derives a KPI value from the machine data of events associated withthe entities that provide the service. Information in the entitydefinitions may be used to identify the appropriate events at the time aKPI is defined or whenever a KPI value is being determined. The KPIvalues derived over time may be stored to build a valuable repository ofcurrent and historical performance information for the service, and therepository, itself, may be subject to search query processing. AggregateKPIs may be defined to provide a measure of service performancecalculated from a set of service aspect KPI values; this aggregate mayeven be taken across defined timeframes and/or across multiple services.A particular service may have an aggregate KPI derived fromsubstantially all of the aspect KPI's of the service to indicate anoverall health score for the service.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ facilitates the production ofmeaningful aggregate KPI's through a system of KPI thresholds and statevalues. Different KPI definitions may produce values in differentranges, and so the same value may mean something very different from oneKPI definition to another. To address this, SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ implements a translation of individual KPI values to acommon domain of “state” values. For example, a KPI range of values maybe 1-100, or 50-275, while values in the state domain may be ‘critical,’‘warning,’ ‘normal,’ and ‘informational’. Thresholds associated with aparticular KPI definition determine ranges of values for that KPI thatcorrespond to the various state values. In one case, KPI values 95-100may be set to correspond to ‘critical’ in the state domain. KPI valuesfrom disparate KPI's can be processed uniformly once they are translatedinto the common state values using the thresholds. For example, “normal80% of the time” can be applied across various KPI's. To providemeaningful aggregate KPI's, a weighting value can be assigned to eachKPI so that its influence on the calculated aggregate KPI value isincreased or decreased relative to the other KPI's.

One service in an IT environment often impacts, or is impacted by,another service. SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can reflect thesedependencies. For example, a dependency relationship between a corporatee-mail service and a centralized authentication service can be reflectedby recording an association between their respective servicedefinitions. The recorded associations establish a service dependencytopology that informs the data or selection options presented in a GUI,for example. (The service dependency topology is like a “map” showinghow services are connected based on their dependencies.) The servicetopology may itself be depicted in a GUI and may be interactive to allownavigation among related services.

Entity definitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can includeinformational fields that can serve as metadata, implied data fields, orattributed data fields for the events identified by other aspects of theentity definition. Entity definitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ can also be created and updated by an import of tabulardata (as represented in a CSV, another delimited file, or a search queryresult set). The import may be GUI-mediated or processed using importparameters from a GUI-based import definition process. Entitydefinitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can also be associatedwith a service by means of a service definition rule. Processing therule results in the matching entity definitions being associated withthe service definition. The rule can be processed at creation time, andthereafter on a scheduled or on-demand basis. This allows dynamic,rule-based updates to the service definition.

During operation, SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can recognizeso-called “notable events” that may indicate a service performanceproblem or other situation of interest. These notable events can berecognized by a “correlation search” specifying trigger criteria for anotable event: every time KPI values satisfy the criteria, theapplication indicates a notable event. A severity level for the notableevent may also be specified. Furthermore, when trigger criteria aresatisfied, the correlation search may additionally or alternativelycause a service ticket to be created in an IT service management (ITSM)system, such as a systems available from ServiceNow, Inc., of SantaClara, Calif.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides various visualizations builton its service-centric organization of event data and the KPI valuesgenerated and collected. Visualizations can be particularly useful formonitoring or investigating service performance. SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ provides a service monitoring interface suitable as thehome page for ongoing IT service monitoring. The interface isappropriate for settings such as desktop use or for a wall-mounteddisplay in a network operations center (NOC). The interface mayprominently display a services health section with tiles for theaggregate KPI's indicating overall health for defined services and ageneral KPI section with tiles for KPI's related to individual serviceaspects. These tiles may display KPI information in a variety of ways,such as by being colored and ordered according to factors like the KPIstate value. They also can be interactive and navigate to visualizationsof more detailed KPI information.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a service-monitoring dashboardvisualization based on a user-defined template. The template can includeuser-selectable widgets of varying types and styles to display KPIinformation. The content and the appearance of widgets can responddynamically to changing KPI information. The KPI widgets can appear inconjunction with a background image, user drawing objects, or othervisual elements, that depict the IT operations environment, for example.The KPI widgets or other GUI elements can be interactive so as toprovide navigation to visualizations of more detailed KPI information.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a visualization showingdetailed time-series information for multiple KPI's in parallel graphlanes. The length of each lane can correspond to a uniform time range,while the width of each lane may be automatically adjusted to fit thedisplayed KPI data. Data within each lane may be displayed in a userselectable style, such as a line, area, or bar chart. During operation auser may select a position in the time range of the graph lanes toactivate lane inspection at that point in time. Lane inspection maydisplay an indicator for the selected time across the graph lanes anddisplay the KPI value associated with that point in time for each of thegraph lanes. The visualization may also provide navigation to aninterface for defining a correlation search, using information from thevisualization to pre-populate the definition.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a visualization for incidentreview showing detailed information for notable events. The incidentreview visualization may also show summary information for the notableevents over a time frame, such as an indication of the number of notableevents at each of a number of severity levels. The severity leveldisplay may be presented as a rainbow chart with the warmest colorassociated with the highest severity classification. The incident reviewvisualization may also show summary information for the notable eventsover a time frame, such as the number of notable events occurring withinsegments of the time frame. The incident review visualization maydisplay a list of notable events within the time frame ordered by anynumber of factors, such as time or severity. The selection of aparticular notable event from the list may display detailed informationabout that notable event, including an identification of the correlationsearch that generated the notable event.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides pre-specified schemas forextracting relevant values from the different types of service-relatedevent data. It also enables a user to define such schemas.

3.0. Data Analysis Tool

FIG. 18A is a block diagram that illustrates an example data analysistool, in the form of a module 1800 in accordance with one or moreembodiments. The data analysis module 1800 may include any combinationof hardware and/or software and may be implemented, for example, as partof any of as part of any of data intake and query system 108, clientdevices 102, or host devices 106 described with respect to FIG. 1. Dataanalysis module 1800 may include, for example, a dataset access module1810, a field identification module 1820, a field selection module 1830,a visualization module 1840, and a graphical user interface (GUI) module1850.

In an embodiment, dataset access module 1810 may identify one or moredata sets that are accessible for analysis using data analysis module1800. In this context, a dataset may be any structured or unstructuredset of data. For example, a dataset may include the results of aninitial search query. In other words, the dataset may include any of theset of events that satisfy the initial search query, or a sub portion ofthe data in the set of events that satisfy the search query. In anembodiment, dataset access module 1810 working as part of and/or inconjunction with a search head 210 may operate to receive a user searchquery, process the search query and return results based on the searchquery. This process is described in more detail with respect to flowchart illustrated in FIG. 4.

In some embodiments a dataset may be based on a pre-defined data model.As previously described, a data model in this context is ahierarchically structured search-time mapping of semantic knowledgeabout one or more datasets. The data model encodes the domain knowledgenecessary to build a variety of specialized searches of those datasets.Those searches, in turn, can be used to perform analysis. Additionalinformation on data models can be found in the previous section 2.9 ofthis document titled “Data Models.”

In some embodiments a dataset may be based on one or more definedperformance metrics for one or more target computing resources. Forexample, cloud computing services such as Amazon™ AWS may track andoffer access to defined performance metrics (e.g. storage utilization,CPU utilization, memory utilization, data I/O, etc.) for their computingresources. In an embodiment, a given metric can be represented as atuple of four fields: time, metric name, measurement, and dimension. Thetime field may include a timestamp indicating a time at which a valuefor a given measurement was taken at the target resource. The metricname field may include string literal that represents the name of thegiven metric (e.g. nginx.upstream.responses.5xxx). The Measurement fieldwill typically include a numerical data point representative of thevalue of the metric. Metric measurements may come in different typessuch as count, timing, sample, gauge, sets (unique occurrences ofevents), etc. A given metric may also include multiple measurements orat least multiple data points based on a particular measurement such asdifferent statistical aggregations (e.g. count, sum, average, median,etc.). Based on the resource being monitored many metric measurementsmay be based on a pre-defined aggregation function and a set bin span.Each metric may have different aggregations, or may also have differentaggregation resolutions (different bin spans). The metric's dimensionmay include a string literal that represents a tag or name that providesmetadata about the metric (e.g. technology—nginx, cloud environment—aws,cloud region—us-east-1a, etc.).

These examples of datasets have been provided for illustrative purposes,but are not to be construed as limiting. Any of the data analysistechniques that will be described may also be applied to any time ofdataset (e.g. a prepared tabular dataset).

In addition to facilitating retrieval of a dataset (e.g. via search),dataset access module 1810 may facilitate user selection of pre-prepareddata sets (e.g. that are based on a data model). As will be described,in some embodiments, dataset access module 1810 operating in conjunctionwith GUI module 1850 may cause display of an interactive set (e.g. alist) of dataset identifiers (e.g. dataset names) that referencedatasets that are available for analysis (see e.g. screen 1900 shown inFIG. 19). Through the interactive set, a user may then select one ormore of the available datasets to analyze.

In an embodiment, field identification module 1820 may identify fieldsthat occur in a given dataset. For example, where a dataset is based onan initial search query, field selection module 1820 may return one ormore field names that reference fields that occur in events returned inresponse to the search query. In other words, field identificationmodule 1820 will only return reference to fields that are included in atleast one of the events that satisfy a criteria in the initial searchquery. Field identification module 1820 may also return data associatedwith the identified fields such as a field type (e.g. measurement,category, etc.), a value type (e.g. numerical, literal, etc.), and acount of values that occur in a particular field (e.g. total values,total unique values, etc.).

In an embodiment, field selection module 1830 may identify fieldsselected from the set of identified fields that occur in a givendataset. Fields may be selected automatically (e.g. based on one or morepredefined selection algorithms) and/or, as will be described in moredetail, in response to user inputs. As will be described, in someembodiments, the field selection module 1830 operating in conjunctionwith field identification module 1810 and GUI module 1850 may identifyand cause display of an interactive set (e.g. a list) of fieldidentifiers (e.g. field names) that reference fields that occur in agiven data set. For example, these modules may operate to cause displayto a user of interactive set of field identifiers that reference fieldsthat occur in events that satisfy a search query. Here, each field namemay include the name of the field as well as additional informationregarding the field (e.g. field type, value type, statisticalinformation on values that occur in the field, etc.). Through thedisplayed interactive list, a user may then select one or more of theidentified fields to analyze by interacting with the displayed fieldidentifiers. As will be described in more detail, in some embodiments,in response to a user selection of a field identifier, field selectionmodule 1830 operating in conjunction with field identification module1810 and GUI module 1850 may cause display of an interactive elementincluding an option to refine the data upon with a visualization isbased. For example, in the case of numerical values (e.g. formeasurement fields), field selection module 1830 may cause display of anoption to apply an aggregation to the values for visualization.Alternatively, in the case of literal values (e.g. for categoricalfields), field selection module 1830 may cause display of an option tofilter one or more of the values included in the field.

In an embodiment, visualization module 1840 may receive the fieldselections (e.g. from field selection module 1830) and in conjunctionwith GUI module 1850 cause display to a user of a visualization based onthe values in the selected fields to the user's analysis of the dataset.The process of causing display of a visualization may include accessingthe data to be visualized (e.g. the values for selected fields in thedataset), processing the data to be visualized (e.g. by applyingaggregation functions), rendering the data to be visualized, andoutputting the rendered visualization for display to a user, forexample, via a client device 102.

As previously mentioned, and in contrast with the reporting featuresdescribed with respect to FIGS. 14-16, one aspect of the presentinnovation is that visualizations may be automatically displayed to auser in response to field selections and with little to no input fromthe user defining visualization parameters. Accordingly, in someembodiments, visualization module 1840 may operate to automaticallydefine one or more visualization parameters before rendering avisualization according to the parameters. Visualization parameters caninclude, but are not limited to, visualization type (e.g. bar chart,line graph, map, Sankey diagram, etc.), axis assignments, scaling,ordering, other visual arrangement specifics such as colors, color keys,and available customizing options (e.g. juxtaposition options). In someembodiments, visualization module 1840 may apply one or more rulesand/or algorithms to select visualization parameters with a goal ofpresenting information to the user in a manner to provide the greatestanalytical insight. As a simple example, if the user elects to displaytime-series data, visualization module 1840 may automatically define thevisualization type as a line graph and utilize the appropriate renderinglibraries to cause display of such a line graph. Conversely, if the userelects to visualize non-time series data, the visualization module 1840may automatically define the visualization type as a bar graph. Asanother example, visualization module 1840 may automatically define axisassignments, scales, and data resolution based at least in part on thevalues (or data derived from the values) for the selected one or morefields. For example, visualization module 1840 may adjust the resolution(i.e. number of plotted points) and/or aggregation function applied to aset of time-series data with a high variance so that trends in the datacan be more easily identified by a viewing user. Also, as will bedescribed in more detail, visualization module 1840 may automaticallydefine how data is split in a visualization based on a user's fieldselections without receiving instructions from the user definingvisualization splits. These above provided examples of how visualizationmodule 1840 may define certain visualization parameters have beenprovided for illustrative purposes and are not to be construed aslimiting. A person having ordinary skill will recognize that a similarmodule may be configured differently to suite particular implementationrequirements.

As mentioned, the data used by visualization module 1840 may be based onthe values included in a selected field. In some embodiments, thesevalues may be returned in response to a subsequent search query.Consider, for example, a dataset including events returned in responseto a search query of a store of indexed events. The returned set ofevents may include occurrences of fields A, B, C, and D. In response toa user selection of field A, data analysis module 1800 may automaticallygenerate a subsequent search query for events that satisfy a criteriathe initial search query and that further include values in field A. Forexample, field selection module 1830 operating in conjunction with asearch generation module (not shown) and/or dataset access module 1810may automatically generate a search (for example in SPL) based on theuser's field selections. Subsequent searches may further be generatedbased on additional field selections and or options to, for example,aggregate values in a given field, or filter values in a given field. Assearches are generated, they may be submitted to a search head 210 ofthe data intake and query system 108 to return results forvisualization. Accordingly, data analysis module 1800 may operate withina framework of the previously described data intake and query system 108to retrieve data for analysis without the user needing to manuallydefine the query in the appropriate query language. Note, however thatsuch arrangement is not necessary to practice the described techniques.For example, in an alternative embodiment all or some of the raw datafor a set of events satisfying the criteria of an initial search may beretrieved and staged as a structured dataset (e.g. a table) andvisualized for analysis based on user inputs without needing to generateor execute subsequent search queries.

In some embodiments, the displayed visualization is manipulable by auser (i.e. interactive). Accordingly, in such embodiments, visualizationmodule 1840 may dynamically update a displayed visualization in responseto user inputs. For example, as previously mentioned, to aid exploratoryand iterative analysis of a dataset, visualization module 1840 maydynamically update a visualization based on an initial field selectionin response to a subsequent field selection. This may in some casesinclude redefining the visualization parameters. For example, as will bedescribed in more detail, a visualization may be dynamically updated tosplit values included in an initially selected field according to asubsequently selected field (e.g. a categorical field). Visualizationmodule 1840, operating in conjunction with GUI module 1850 may furthercause display of options to the user to modify the visualization for agiven set of field selections. For options may be presented to changetime ranges of visualized data, adjust the juxtaposition of splits, etc.

The graphical user interface (GUI) sub-module 350 may provide forcausing display of graphical interface features (e.g., rendering thedescribed interactive GUIs for display to a user) and/or receiving userinput (e.g., an initial search query, selection of fields, visualizationoptions, etc.). Certain embodiments are discussed herein with regard tooperations performed by certain modules for the purpose of illustration,but are not to be construed as limiting. For example, embodiments of thepresent innovation may include fewer or more functional operations thanas described with respect to data analysis module 1800. Further thefunctionalities and features of the described modules may be combined(e.g., shared) or divided (e.g., distributed) in to more of fewermodules than as shown in FIG. 18A.

3.1 Data Analysis Tool Process

FIG. 18B depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process performedby a computer system implementing a data analysis tool (e.g. a dataanalysis module 1800), according to some embodiments. The processdescribed with respect to FIG. 18B may be performed by any of the one ormore computing systems described with respect to FIG. 1. For example, insome embodiments, some or all of the steps of described process 1800 areperformed by any of a computing system operating as part of data intakeand query system 108, client devices 102, or host devices 106. Theprocess flow illustrated in FIG. 18B is provided for illustrativepurposes only. Those skilled in the art will understand that one or moreof the steps of the processes illustrated in FIG. 18 may be removed orthe ordering of the steps may be changed.

The process depicted in FIG. 18 can optionally begin at step 1882 with aaccessing the dataset to be analyzed. As previously discussed withrespect to FIG. 18A, in some embodiment s, step 1802 may includereceiving, via a search interface (e.g. as shown in FIG. 6A), anexpression of the search query in a query language (e.g. SPL),submitting the search query for execution (e.g. to search head 210), andreceiving from the search head 210, in response to submission of thesearch query a set of events that satisfy a criteria of the searchquery. In some embodiments, step 1882 may include displaying to a uservia a dataset selection interface (e.g. as shown in FIG. 19) a list ofprepared datasets (e.g. based on predefined data models) available foranalysis, and receiving via the interface a selection by the user of adataset to analyze.

The process continues at step 1884 with identifying fields that occur inthe accessed dataset. Fields in this context may be defined based on anextraction rule (e.g. a regular expression) for extracting a sub-portionof the data included in an event returned by the search query. In otherwords, step 1804 will return references (e.g. field name, field type,value type, etc.) to fields that are included in at least one of theevents that satisfy a criteria in an initial search query.

The process continues at step 1886 with displaying to a user a set (e.g.a list) of field identifiers (e.g. field names) that reference fieldspresent in the accessed dataset (e.g. fields present in events includedin the dataset). For example, the list of fields may be displayed as aninteractive element 2002 (referred to herein as a “field picker”) via aGUI (e.g. as shown in FIG. 20A).

The process continues at step 1888 with receiving a user selection ofone or more field identifiers (e.g. field names) from the displayed setof field identifiers, for example via the interactive element 2002displayed in the GUI shown in FIG. 20A.

The process continues at step 1890 with displaying a manipulable (i.e.interactive) visualization of values (or calculated data based on thevalues) included in the selected fields. As previously described step1890 may include automatically defining one or more visualizationparameters based on the fields referenced by the one or more selectedfield identifiers and generating and rendering the manipulablevisualization based on the defined one or more visualization parameters.For example, in some embodiments the defined one or more visualizationparameters may be based on any of the values in the selected field, thetype of the selected field, or similar information regarding subsequentfield selections. Also, as previously described, step 1890 may include,in some embodiments, generating a subsequent search query based on theselected field identifier(s), submitting the generated search to asearch head 210 of a data intake and query system 108 for execution,receiving results based on values included in the field(s) referenced bythe selected field identifier(s) in response to execution of the searchquery, and rendering the manipulable visualization based on the receivedresults.

The process continues at step 1892 with dynamically updating thevisualization in response to subsequent user interactions. For example,in some embodiments, step 1892 may include dynamically updating adisplayed visualization in response to one or more of the userinteraction flows described with respect to FIGS. 20A-32.

3.2 Data Analysis Graphical User Interfaces

The following provides illustrations and descriptions of exampleinteractive GUIs of a data analysis tool that can be utilized by a userto analyze a data set. Each of the illustrations are accompanied bydescription of how the graphical user interfaces operate, definitionsavailable using the graphical user interfaces, and how a user can usethe graphical user interface to analyze a data set. Note that theincluded screen captures of example interactive GUIs and are providedfor illustrative purposes to show certain example features of a tool foranalyzing a data set. Some embodiments may include fewer or more userinteraction features than are described with respect to the followingFIGS. while remaining within the scope of the presently describedinnovations.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example dataset selection screen 1900 inaccordance with the some embodiments. In some embodiments datasetselection screen may be accessed by selecting an interactive element1910 labeled “Datasets” in a tool bar of search screen 600 describedwith respect to FIG. 6A. Example dataset selection screen 1900 includesan interactive list 1902 of datasets that are available for analysis. Aspreviously described, in some embodiments, the available data sets maybe based on predefined data models. Example list 1902 is organized intorows of selectable data sets with columned information identifying, forexample, a title 1904, type 1906, and available actions 1908 for eachdata set. For example, a dataset titled “Firewall Traffic” (highlightedin FIG. 19 by the solid line box) may be selected for analysis by a userby selecting the “analyze” option 1910. As shown in FIG. 19, eachdataset may also include other actions such as generating a report(“pivot”), and exploring in search (i.e. displaying corresponding asearch for example via a search screen 600 shown at FIG. 6A). Theexample dataset selection screen 1900 is provided for illustrativepurposes and is not to be construed as limiting. More or fewer elements(as well as different arrangements of those elements) that are shown inFIG. 19 may be implemented in a dataset selection screen according toother embodiments. Further, the features described with respect to FIG.19 do not necessarily appear in all embodiments of the presentlydescribed innovations. For example, a user may begin analyzing a datasetby inputting a search query (e.g. via search screen 600 shown at FIG.6A) without being presented with screen 1900.

FIGS. 20A-20C show screen captures of an example data analysis interface2000 that illustrate various interactive features related to an exampleinteractive “field picker” element 2002. In some embodiments, exampleinterface 2000 as shown in FIG. 20A is displayed to a user in responseto a user selection to analyze an available dataset (e.g. by detectinginteraction with element 1910 in FIG. 19). Alternatively, exampleinterface 2000 as shown in FIG. 20A may be displayed to a user inresponse to a user selection to analyze results of a submitted searchquery (e.g. by detecting interaction with an element (not shown) insearch screen 600 shown in FIG. 6A.

As shown in FIG. 20A, example field picker 2002 (highlighted by a dottedline box) may include a displayed list of one or more field identifiers(e.g. field names) that reference fields present in a dataset (e.g. aset of events). For example, the displayed field identifiers mayreference fields present in a set of events returned in response to asearch query. Each displayed field identifier may include a field name(e.g. bytes, bytes_in, action, app category, etc.), a value typeidentifier 2010 (e.g. # for fields that include numerical values, and afor fields that include literal values), and a value count 2012. Forexample, the value count 2012 may display a number indicating the totalnumber of values occurring in the associated field, or as shown in FIG.20A, a count of the number of unique values that occur in the associatedfield. The displayed field identifiers may optionally be arranged byfield type to better aid a user's analysis. For example, in someembodiments fields can be classified and organized in field picker 2002as either measures (i.e. “values”) 2006 or as dimensions (i.e.“categories”) 2008. Note that as used in this disclosure, the term“values” may refer to the values (whether numerical or literal) thatoccur in all field types (both measures and dimensions). This is not tobe confused with the field type label of “values” used, for example, inthe field picker 2002 as shown in FIG. 20A to identify fields that aremeasures. The field identifiers listed as dimensions (i.e. under thefield type label of “categories”) reference fields that technicallyinclude values, albeit values comprising, for example, strings literals.Example, field picker 2002 may also include a listed field identifier2004 referencing a time dimension. As will be described with referenceto later figures, selection of field identifier 2004 may cause displayof a visualization based on values in a selected field but in timeseries (e.g. represented as a line graph with the time dimension alongthe x-axis). Finally, field picker 2002 may include a search option 2014through which a user can provide input to search for identified fieldsthat occur in the dataset.

The example field picker 2002 shown in FIG. 20A is provided forillustrative purposes and is not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIG. 20A may be implemented in field picker elementsaccording to other embodiments. For example, in some embodiments, thefields may not be organized according to type. Also, the selectionmechanics may differ in other embodiments. For example, in someembodiments, a user may select from field identifiers in a pull downmenu, by entering a field identifier in a editable text field, etc.

FIGS. 20B and 20C show example interactive features that may beassociated with field picker 2002. For example, as shown in FIG. 20B, inresponse to detecting user interaction with a particular fieldidentifier, a graphical element 2016 may be displayed to the user thatincludes additional information associated with the field (and theincluded values) referenced by the field identifier. Specifically, FIG.20B shows graphical element 2016 displayed in response to a user placinga cursor over a field identifier titled “bytes_out.” As suggested by thetitle, this example field identifier references a field present in a setof events that are part of a dataset titled “Firewall_Traffic.” Thereferenced field in this example includes numerical values indicating ameasure of the outbound bytes passing through a firewall. The eventsincluded in the Firewall_Traffic” dataset may, for example, includemachine data from a log gathered at a device operating as part of afirewall. As shown in FIG. 20B, graphical element 2016 displaysinformation related to the values included in the particular fieldreferenced by the field identifier (“bytes_out”). Note again, that thisinformation may be based on the values that are present in a “bytes_out”field for events returned in response to an initial search query. Thisis not to say that every event that satisfies the criteria of theinitial search query necessarily includes values in this field. In thiscase, because the values included in the “bytes_out” field arenumerical, graphical element 2016 includes statistical aggregates of theset of values present in the dataset (e.g. machine data in the set ofreturned events). For example, graphical element 2016 may display to auser a distinct count of events including values in the particularfield, an average of the values in the field, the minimum and maximumvalues, and a standard deviation.

FIG. 20C shows a similar graphical element 2018 except with informationrelating to a categorical field. For example, as shown in FIG. 20C,shows graphical element 2018 being displayed in response to a userplacing a cursor over a field identifier titled “app:category.” Assuggested by the title, this example field identifier references valuescontaining a string literal identifying a category of an applicationthat was related to a particular event. For example, the particularevent, although logged by a firewall, may include machine dataspecifically referencing or at least suggesting a category ofapplication related to the data transfer (either source or destination).Note again that this field may have been extracted based on an inferenceand according to a late-binding schema by data intake and query system108 at search time. A shown in FIG. 20C, example graphical element 2018includes information on the total number of unique values occurring inthe particular field as well as a list of the counts for each of theunique values. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 20C, the value counts aredisplayed graphically with an order list of representative bar charts.

The example informational graphical elements 2016 and 2018 shown inFIGS. 20B and 20C are provided for illustrative purposes and is not tobe construed as limiting. More or fewer elements (as well as differentarrangements of those elements) that are shown in FIGS. 20B and 20C maybe implemented in similar graphical elements according to otherembodiments. For example, depending on the requirement for a givenimplementation, different statistical aggregations may be presented viagraphical element 2016 and/or different visualizations of value countsmay be presented via graphical element 2018. Further, the featuresdescribed with respect to FIGS. 20B and 20C do not necessarily appear inall embodiments of the presently described innovations.

FIGS. 21A and 21B show a series of screen captures of example dataanalysis interface 2000 illustrating an example response to a userselection of a particular field identifier via field picker 2002. Asshown in FIG. 21A, in response to a user selection of a particular fieldidentifier (e.g. the user clicking on the “bytes_in” field identifier)several responses may occur. First, in response to the user selection, acomputer system (for example implementing data analysis module 1800)will cause display of an manipulable visualization 2130 a based on thevalues of included in the field referenced by the selected fieldidentifier. As previously discussed, the automatic display of thevisualization 2130 a may include automatically defining certainparameters for the visualization without any further input from theuser. For example, as shown in FIG. 20A, interface 2000 is displaying abar chart of the average of the measures of the incoming bytes through afirewall. Note that all the user has done to produce this visualizationis to select the field identifier (“bytes_in”). The user was notnecessarily prompted to define the parameters of the resultingvisualization. Accordingly, the user is immediately presented with arecognizable insight into the events included in the data set. Asmentioned, example field picker 2002 includes an option to select a timedimension, which if selected may result in line graph visualization ofthe average of the bytes_in over a certain time period, however thatoption has not been selected in the scenario depicted in FIGS. 21A-21B.

As further illustrated in FIG. 21A, optionally in response to the userselection of a field identifier, a computer system (for exampleimplementing data analysis module 1800) may cause display of an editableexpression 2140 a of the visualization 2130 a. The example expression2140 a shown in FIG. 21A simply states “# AVG(bytes_in),” howeverfurther features of this editable expression will become more apparentwith respect to later described figures.

As further illustrated in FIG. 21A, optionally in response to the userselection of a field identifier, a computer system (for exampleimplementing data analysis module 1800) may cause display of an option2120 to, for example, set or change an aggregation function to beapplied to the values for visualization. As shown in FIG. 21A, option2120 may be part of a graphical element that summarizes the currentlyselected field, current aggregation of values in the field, and certainstatistical information relating to the values for the selection field(e.g. min value, max value, avg., etc.). As suggested in FIG. 21A, insome embodiments, numerical values may default to using averagingaggregation function. For example in this case, the average of thevalues a “bytes_in” measure would provide more insight to the user thana “summation” of the values for this measure. This is, however, anexample and should not be construed as limiting. The default in othercases may be based on some other aggregation function. A shown in FIG.21B, in response to user interaction with option 2120, a menu 2122 maybe displayed showing available aggregation functions that may be appliedto the values in the selected field for visualization. For example,available aggregation functions for numerical values may include any ofminimum value, maximum value, average value, summation, value count,distribution count, standard deviation, etc. In response to a userselection of a different aggregation function, the computer system (forexample implementing data analysis module 1800) may dynamically updateand cause display of new visualization 2130 b and/or visualizationexpression 2140 b. Note, that dynamically updating the visualization mayin some cases involve updating (i.e. redefining) certain visualizationparameters. For example, the scale applied to a bar chart of the averageof the values may differ than the scale applied to a bar chart of themaximum value.

The example features shown in FIGS. 21A and 21B are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 21A and 21B may be implemented in otherembodiments. Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 21Aand 21B (specifically option 2120 and expression 2140 a-b) do notnecessarily appear in all embodiments of the presently describedinnovations.

FIGS. 22A and 22B show a series of screen captures of example dataanalysis interface 2000 illustrating an example response to a userselection of a particular field identifier along with a time dimensionidentifier via field picker 2002. As previously mentioned theautomatically defined parameters for a given visualization will dependat least in part on the fields selected by a user. In the scenarioillustrated in FIG. 22A, a user has selected both the “bytes_in” field(e.g. by clicking the “bytes_in” field identifier 2210 via field picker2002) and has further selected the time dimension field (e.g. byclicking the “time” field identifier 22102 via field picker 2002). Asshown in FIG. 22A, in response to such user selections several responsesmay occur. First, in response to the user selection, a computer system(for example implementing data analysis module 1800) will cause displaymanipulable visualization 2230 a based on the two selected field. Insome cases the displayed visualization 2230 a may be an update to apreviously displayed visualization. For example, as mentioned, inresponse to a user selection of the “bytes_in field,” the system maycause display of a bar chart (see e.g. visualizations 2130 a-b in FIGS.21A-21B) showing the average value of bytes in for the given dataset. Inresponse to the user additionally selecting the time dimension field2212, the previously displayed bar chart is dynamically updated into theline graph illustrated in FIG. 22A. A line graph of the average of thebytes in over a given time period may provide more insight to a viewinguser than a bar chart.

As further illustrated in FIG. 22A, optionally in response to the userselection of a the two field identifiers 2212 and 2210, a computersystem (for example implementing data analysis module 1800) may causedisplay of corresponding options 2220 and 2222. Option 2220 whichcorresponds to the “bytes_in” field is the same or similar to option2120 described with respect to FIGS. 21A-21B. Option 2222, on the otherhand, corresponds to the time dimension field indicated by the selectionof identifier 2212. Example option 2222 shown in FIG. 22A may includegraphical element including an interactive adjustment mechanism thatenables a user to adjust an aspect of the visualization. For example, inexample option 2222, a slider bar is displayed though which a user canadjust the time span over which the aggregation functions are applied tothe values occurring in the field reference by selected identifier 2210.As previously mentioned, each event may have a timestamp associated withthe machine data. Accordingly, the values in certain fields of the eventcan be visualized over time. Similarly, aggregation functions may beapplied to those values over different time spans by referencing thosetimestamps. Note however, that a user input to option 2222 or 2220 isnot required to produce a visualization. Option 2222 may automaticallydefault to a predefined time span or may automatically default to atimespan dynamically selected based on the values in the selectedfield(s) (e.g. through a statistical analysis of those values) toproduce a visualization intended to provide the use with insight intothe visualized data. For example, as shown in FIG. 22B, in response to auser input to option 2222 setting the aggregation time span at 1 minute,a very different (perhaps less insightful) line graph 2230 b results.Again, the example line graph 2230 which may or may not provide insightto a viewing user has been displayed to them simply by selecting twofield identifiers. This ability to quickly and automatically makeassumptions to define certain visualization parameters based on fieldselection(s) enables iterative and exploratory analysis of a datasetperhaps leading to serendipitous insights.

As further illustrated in FIG. 22A, optionally in response to the userselection of a field identifiers 2212 and 2210, a computer system (forexample implementing data analysis module 1800) may cause display of aneditable expression 2240 a of the visualization 2230 a based on thosefield selections. The example expression 2240 a shown in FIG. 22A simplystates “# AVG(bytes_in) over time,” however further features of thiseditable expression will become more apparent with respect to laterdescribed figures.

The example features shown in FIGS. 22A and 22B are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 22A and 22B may be implemented in otherembodiments. Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 22Aand 22B (specifically options 2220, 2222 and expression 2240 a) do notnecessarily appear in all embodiments of the presently describedinnovations.

FIG. 23 shows a screen capture of example data analysis interface 2000illustrating an example response to a user interaction with a displayedvisualization 2230. For example, in some embodiments, in response todetecting a user interaction with a particular portion of the displayedmanipulable visualization, a computer system (e.g. implementing dataanalysis module 1800) may cause display of information associated withthe events upon which the selected particular portion of the displayedvisualization is based. For example, as shown in FIG. 23, in response toa user placing a cursor over a portion of a displayed visualization 2330based on certain selected fields, the computer system may cause displayof a graphical element 2332 including information associated with theevents upon which the particular portion of the displayed visualization2330 is based. In the example element 2332, the information indicatesthat the graphed data point at the particular portion is based on acalculated average bytes 10.8 k at a particular time (Sep. 18, 2016 at1:05 PM). Note that the information provided in example element 2332 isprovided for illustrative purposes and is not to be construed aslimiting. In other embodiments, other information may be displayed suchas other aggregations (e.g. count, mac, min, etc.) of the set of valuesthat form the graphed data point.

Further, although not shown in FIG. 23, in some embodiments, in responseto detecting a user interaction with a particular portion of thedisplayed manipulable visualization, a computer system (e.g.implementing data analysis module 1800) may cause display of the events(e.g. including raw machine data of the events) upon which thevisualized particular portion is based. For example, in an embodiment,element 2332 may be displayed to a user as they move the cursor overvisualization 2330. However, in response to clicking the particularportion (or element 2332), the computer system may cause display of alist of events (in some cases including raw machine data) upon which theparticular portion is based in a format similar to the events list 608shown with respect to FIG. 6A.

The example features shown in FIG. 23 is provided for illustrativepurposes and is not to be construed as limiting. More or fewer elements(as well as different arrangements of those elements) than are shown inFIG. 23 may be implemented in other embodiments. Further, the featuresdescribed with respect to FIG. 23 (specifically graphical element 2332)do not necessarily appear in all embodiments of the presently describedinnovations.

FIGS. 24A-24B show a series of screen captures of example data analysisinterface 2000 illustrating an example zoom functionality to adjust thetime range of a time series visualization. As shown in FIG. 24A, a usermay select a range of time 2432 a in a displayed visualization 2430 a,for example, by clicking and dragging the cursor in the direction of thex-axis of example visualization 2430 a to select the time range 2432 a.In response to the selection a computer system may cause display of anoption 2434 a to “zoom” the displayed visualization to the selected timerange. In response to a user input via option 2434 confirming therequest to zoom, visualization 2432 a may be dynamically updated to newvisualization 2430 b shown in FIG. 24B. Note that in some embodiments,the request to zoom may result in merely graphically zooming into thealready displayed visualization 2430 a. In other words, the zoomedvisualization may look exactly like the portion of visualization 2430with the selected range 2432 a, but bigger. Alternatively, in someembodiments, the request to zoom will result in an updatedvisualization, perhaps based on updated visualization parameters. Forexample, “zoomed” visualization 2430 b shown in FIG. 24B is at a higherdata resolution than visualization 2430 a shown in FIG. 24A. This may bebased on an adjusted time span over which aggregation functions areapplied to the values in the selected field(s). Again, adjustment invisualization parameters may be performed by the system automaticallywith little to no input require from the user with a goal of providinggreater data insight to the user.

The example features shown in FIGS. 24A-24B are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 24A-24B may be implemented in other embodiments.Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 24A-24B(specifically the zoom functionality) do not necessarily appear in allembodiments of the presently described innovations.

FIGS. 25A-25C show a series of screen captures of example data analysisinterface 2000 illustrating example options to adjust the time range ofvalues to be included for analysis. For example, in response to a userinput via menu 2550, a use may be presented with one or more options forsetting the time span of the values from a given dataset to be analyzed.Specifically, option 2552 shown in FIG. 25A shows an interactive list ofpreset time spans (e.g. last 60 mins, today, last week, all time, etc.)from which the user can select. In response to a user selection of oneof the preset time ranges, analysis will be restricted to values forselected fields included in timestamped events that fall within theselected time range. Further, selection of a particular time range mayoptionally impact list of field identifiers displayed via field picker2002. For example if a particular field does not occur in the eventsthat fall within a selected time range, the field identifier referencingthat particular field may not be displayed in field picker 2002. Asshown in FIGS. 25B and 25C, additional menus 2554 and 2556(respectively) may be displayed to provide the user with different waysto select a time range for the dataset.

The example features shown in FIGS. 25A-25C are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 25A-25C may be implemented in other embodiments.Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 25A-25C(specifically menus 2550-2556) do not necessarily appear in allembodiments of the presently described innovations.

FIGS. 26A-26B show a series of screen captures of example data analysisinterface 2000 illustrating features related to splits in displayed timeseries visualizations. Consider the example scenario illustrated in FIG.26A. As described with respect to the scenario in FIG. 22A, a user herehas selected the “bytes_in” field as well as the “time” dimension field.However, in the scenario illustrated in FIG. 26A, the user hasadditionally selected the “app:category field” thereby resulting in avisualization 2630 a in the form of a split line graph. In other wordsin response to selecting the “app:category” field at the screenillustrated in FIG. 22A, the computer system may dynamically updatevisualization 2230 a resulting in visualization 2630 a. As shown in FIG.26A, the line graph of average bytes in over time is now split intomultiple graphs according to the values (e.g. application categories) inthe subsequently selected field (e.g. “app:category”). In other words,the user is presented with multiple line graphs that show the averageincoming bytes for traffic associated with applications in variouscategories, thereby enabling the user to gain some insight into whichapplications (e.g. collaboration applications vs. business systems) areassociated with the most incoming network traffic.

As shown in FIG. 26A, in response to a user selection of the“app:category” field identifier, the system may cause display of anoption 2624 to filter according to the values included in the fieldreferenced by the selected “app:category” field identifier. Option 2624,may be displayed along with options associated with previously selectedfields (e.g. 2620 and 2622). As previously mentioned, the “app:category”field may be of a categorical field type including literal values thatdescribe a dimension of a given event. For example some of the eventsincluded in a dataset may be based on network activity that isassociated with the execution one or more applications. An applicationmay be classified as belonging to one or more categories. Here, as shownin option 2624, the values occurring in the selected “bytes_in” fieldare associated with one of several categories of application (e.g.networking, general intent, collaboration, business systems, media, andunknown). The values occurring in the “app:category” field may bedisplayed to a user as a n interactive list 1225 a through which theuser may select and deselect values to filter. Again, the displayedapplication categories in option 2624 may be based on values that occurin “app:category” field in events that also include “bytes_in” fieldmeasures (i.e. due to the concurrent selection of the “bytes_in” field).Displayed list 2625 a may include graphical elements such as a bar chartfor each value showing statistics associated with that value (e.g. thecount of events that include that value, the associated measure ofanother field related to the categorical values, etc.). Such informationmay provide the user with a quick indication of the distribution ofmeasures in certain categories to aid in their exploratory analysis.Displayed list 2625 a may also include a color key that maps to a colorof one split line graphs in visualization 2630 a. For example, as shownin FIG. 26A, the “collaboration” application category is associated witha yellow color key. Accordingly, the corresponding line graph showingaverage bytes in for traffic associated with collaboration applicationsis shown in visualization 2630 a as a yellow line.

Again, the arrangement (including splits, color, axis assignments,scale, etc.) of visualization 2630 a may be based on automaticallydefined visualization parameters with little to no input from the userapart from the field selections. Note that the multiple line graphs ofvisualization 2630 a graph data (e.g. aggregates) based on the values inthe “bytes_in” field over the “time” dimension split according to thevalues in the “app:category” field. The visualization could alsopotentially have been configured in reverse. For example graph of acount of the values in the “app:category” over the “time” dimensionsplit according to the values in “bytes_in” field. However, for obviousreasons, the resulting visualization may provide limited insight to theuser because it would result in the splitting of visualization 2630 ainto hundreds and possible thousands of individual line graphs splitaccording to each unique value in the “bytes_in” field. Accordingly, insome embodiments a logic is applied to the set of user selected fieldsto determine how to arrange a resulting visualization (include how tosplit graphs, charts, etc.). Alternatively, in some embodiments may bebased on the order in which the user selects fields. For example, a usermay select the “bytes_in” field as shown in FIG. 22A resulting in agraph 2230 a of the average incoming bytes over a time period. Afterselecting the “bytes_in” field, the user subsequently selects the“app:category” field thereby splitting the graph 2230 a into multiplegraphs according to the values included in subsequent field selection asshown in visualization 2630 a.

As further illustrated in FIG. 26A, optionally in response to the userselection of the multiple field identifiers, a computer system (forexample implementing data analysis module 1800) may cause display of aneditable expression 2640 a of the visualization 2630 a based on thosefield selections. The example expression 2640 a shown in FIG. 26A states“# AVG(bytes_in) over time split by app: category.”

As shown in FIG. 26B, in response to a user input via option 2624de-selecting one or more of the categorical values included in the“app:category” field, the system may dynamically update visualization2630 a to display new visualization 2630 b. A shown in updated list 2625b the user has deselected (or filtered out) values associated withnetworking apps, business systems apps, and unknown apps. As shown inFIG. 26B, visualization 2630 b includes multiple graphs of the averageincome bytes over time split according to the three selected applicationcategories (collaboration, general intent, and media). Note also that,as shown in FIG. 26B, visualization parameters (e.g. color of the lineand scale of the y-axis) may be dynamically updated without any input bythe user.

Recall that an event may include multiple fields. Further, an event maybe based on activity associated with an application that can beclassified under two or more of the included application categories. Forexample, an application may be classified as both media andcollaboration. Accordingly, the filtering mechanism described withrespect to option 2624 may be configured in a number of different ways.In some embodiments, deselecting (or filtering out one the categoricalvalues) may cause the visualization to be based only those events thatdo not include the filtered value. In other words an event that includesboth a filtered and un-filtered value would not be used in thevisualization. Alternatively, selecting a categorical value (e.g.“media”) may cause the visualization to be based all events that includethe selected value including those events that also include ade-selected or filtered value.

The example features shown in FIGS. 26A-26B are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 26A-26B may be implemented in other embodiments.Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 26A-26B(specifically option 2624 and associated lists 2625 a-b) do notnecessarily appear in all embodiments of the presently describedinnovations.

FIGS. 27A-27C show a series of screen captures of example data analysisinterface 2000 illustrating features related to the juxtaposition ofsplit time series visualizations. As shown in FIG. 27A, example dataanalysis interface 2000 may include a juxtaposition option 2760 throughwhich a user can select different options to juxtapose splitvisualizations. In the example embodiment shown in FIG. 27A, option 2760is shown as an interactive graphical element that can be toggled betweenfour available juxtaposition options (individual line, overlappinglines, layered cumulative, and percentage. The specific arrangement ofoption 2760 and the selectable juxtaposition options are examplesprovided for illustrative purposes and are not to be construed aslimiting. Other juxtaposition options may similarly be provided in otherembodiments.

Similar to FIGS. 26A-26B, FIG. 27A shows a visualization 2730 a of theaverage incoming bytes, over time, split by application category. Thecategory split has been simplified into a two-way split (i.e. “generalinternet” and “collaboration”) for clarity and to illustrate thejuxtaposition options, however similar juxtapositions may be applied invisualizations that are split more than two ways. As mentioned, a userinteracting with the screen shown at FIG. 26B could effectuate this twowas split by deselecting the “media” value via interactive list 2625 b.Note also that the split visualization 2630 b shown in FIG. 26B wasbased on a default juxtaposition option (i.e. multiple graphs includingsingle lines). Returning to FIG. 27A, in response to the user togglingoption 2760, the system may dynamically update the visualization todisplay updated visualization 2730 a according to a second juxtapositionoption, namely overlaid lines on single graph. As shown in FIG. 27A, thesplit visualization 2730 a now includes two lines that graph the averagebytes in over time for traffic associated with each of two applicationcategories (collaboration in blue and general intent in yellow). Notealso that, as shown in FIG. 27A in relation to FIGS. 26A-26B, certainvisualization parameters (e.g. scale of the y-axis) may be dynamicallyupdated without any input by the user to accommodate the two linegraphs. FIG. 27B shows visualization 2730 b based on the same underlyingdata as visualization 2730 a, but according to a different juxtapositionoption, namely layered cumulative. Similarly FIG. 27C shows avisualization 2730 c based on the same underlying data as visualization2730 a, but according to another juxtaposition option, namelypercentage-based.

The example features shown in FIGS. 27A-27C are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 27A-27C may be implemented in other embodiments.Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 27A-27C(specifically juxtaposition option 2760) do not necessarily appear inall embodiments of the presently described innovations.

FIGS. 28A-28B show a series of screen captures of example data analysisinterface 2000 illustrating features related to splits in displayednon-time series visualizations. The scenario illustrated in FIG. 28A issimilar to the scenario illustrated in FIG. 26A, except in FIG. 28A, the“_time” dimension is not selected. Recall that in some embodiments, avisualizations can be displayed as line graphs with time on the x-axiswhen the “_time” dimension field is selected and as bar charts when the“_time” dimension field is not selected. As shown in FIG. 28A, the userhere has selected the “bytes_in” field as well as the “app:category”field by selecting corresponding field identifiers via field picker2002. Accordingly, in response to the selections, visualization 2830 ais displayed in the form of a split bar chart. Specifically, thevisualization 2830 a shows the average incoming bytes at a firewallsplit according to the category of application associated with thetraffic. Again this dynamic change in the visualization (e.g. line graph2630 a to bar chart 2830 a) occurs automatically without any input fromthe user to define parameters of the visualization apart fromdeselecting the “_time” dimension field. The specific mechanics by whichsplits are defined according to field values is described with respectto FIGS. 26A-26B and similarly would apply here. Further, similar to asdescribed with respect to FIGS. 26A-26B, a user may elect to filtercategorical values (e.g. by using the interactive list 2825 a of option2824). For example, in response to a user input via option 2824deselecting some of the categorical values that occur in “app:category”field, (as indicated by updated list 2825 b), the system may dynamicallyupdate visualization 2830 a and cause display of updated visualization2830 b, now in the form of a two-way split bar chart.

The example features shown in FIGS. 28A-28B are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 28A-28B may be implemented in other embodiments.Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 28A-28B(specifically option 2824 and associated lists 2825 a-b) do notnecessarily appear in all embodiments of the presently describedinnovations.

FIGS. 29A-29C show a series of screen captures of example data analysisinterface 2000 illustrating features related to the juxtaposition ofsplit non-time series visualizations. The scenario illustrated in FIG.29A is similar to the scenario illustrated in FIG. 27A, except in FIG.29A, the “_time” dimension is not selected. Recall that in someembodiments, a visualizations can be displayed as line graphs with timeon the x-axis when the “_time” dimension field is selected and as barcharts when the “_time” dimension field is not selected. As shown inFIG. 29A, the user here has selected the “bytes_in” field as well as the“app:category” field by selecting corresponding field identifiers viafield picker 2002. Accordingly, in response to the selections,visualization 2930 a is displayed in the form of a split bar chart.Specifically, the visualization 2930 a shows the average incoming bytesat a firewall split according to the category of application associatedwith the traffic. Again this dynamic change in the visualization (e.g.line graph 2730 a to bar chart 2930 a) occurs automatically without anyinput from the user to define parameters of the visualization apart fromdeselecting the “_time” dimension field. Further, similar to asdescribed with respect to FIGS. 27A-27C, a user may select differentjuxtaposition options for the displayed bar chart, for example, byinteracting with toggling element 2960. For example, according to afirst juxtaposition option, split visualization 2930 a shown in FIG. 29Ais displayed as bar chart including two bars (one for each categorysplit). Alternatively, according to a second juxtaposition option, splitvisualization 2930 b shown in FIG. 29B is displayed as a bar chartincluding a cumulative bar including the two categorical splits (i.e.the two bars of visualization 2930 a stacked on top of each other).Alternatively, according to a third juxtaposition option, splitvisualization 2930 c shown in FIG. 29C is displayed as a bar chartincluding a single bar that reflects the relative percentage of themeasure values in each category split. The specific mechanics byjuxtaposition options may be selected are described with respect toFIGS. 27A-27C and similarly would apply here.

The example features shown in FIGS. 29A-27C are provided forillustrative purposes and are not to be construed as limiting. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 29A-29C may be implemented in other embodiments.Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 29A-29C(specifically juxtaposition option 2960) do not necessarily appear inall embodiments of the presently described innovations.

Certain aspects of a data analysis tool such as dataset selection, fieldselection, aggregation, filtering, time series vs. non-time series,splits, and juxtaposition have been described with respect to FIGS.19-29C. FIGS. 30A-30G show a series of screen captures of example dataanalysis interface 2000 following a specific user interaction flow thatbuild on these features to further illustrate the benefits of thepresently described innovations.

FIG. 30A shows a bar chart visualization 3030 a that is displayed to auser via interface 2000 in response to user selection of fieldidentifiers via field picker 2002. Specifically, the user here hasselected two fields in the “Values” category (i.e. measures) of fieldpicker 2002, “packets_in” and “packets_out.” Again, a defaultaggregation function (“average”) is applied to the numerical valuesincluded in the selected fields for visualization as indicated bygraphical elements 3020 and 3022. Accordingly, the automaticallydisplayed visualization 3030 a includes two color coded bars (yellow forthe average number of outgoing packets (6.6) and blue for the averagenumber of incoming packets (8.0) over a particular time range). Notethat these aggregated values for these two measures (6.6 and 8.0) mayrepresent scaled values.

It is worth noting that the two bars in visualization 3030 a are basedon two measures (i.e. bytes in and bytes out) instead of a categoricalsplit of one measure, for example as described with respect to FIG. 29A.Again, the visualization parameters may be automatically defined basedon the selected fields. In FIG. 29, a measure field (including numericalvalues) was selected followed by a categorical field (including literalvalues). In response, the system automatically determined that the mostuseful visualization based on those selected fields was likely a chartbased on the measure values split according to the categorical values.Here, in FIG. 30A, the user has instead selected two measure fields.Instead of splitting the first measure according to the 69 differentunique values (as indicated in field picker 2002 as part of the fieldidentifier) in the subsequently selected measure, the system determinedthat the most useful visualization (form the user's perspective) is onethat includes a bar representing each selected measure.

FIG. 30B shows an updated visualization 3030 b displayed to the user inresponse to the user subsequently selecting a categorical field,specifically “app:category” via field picker 2002. As suggested by thedisplayed options 3020, 3022, and 3024, the updated visualization 3030 bis now based on three selected fields (two measure fields and onecategorical field). Accordingly, the resulting visualization 3030 bdisplays bars for both the average packets in (in blue) and the averagepackets out (in yellow) split by the values in the selected categoricalfield, “app:category.” A description of visualization 3030 b isreflected in an updated editable expression of the visualization 3040 b,which states “AVG(packets_in), AVG(packets_out), by “app:category,”split by “# values (2)” (i.e. split by the two measures for eachcategory). As shown in FIG. 30B, visualization 3030 b includes a stackedseries of color coded bars, each pair (i.e. yellow and blue)representing each measure split by application category. Based on theinformation presented in visualization 3030 b, the user can now see, forexample, that by far most of the packets in and out comprise networktraffic associated with applications classified as media applications.Again, in contrast to existing reporting tools, which would haverequired the user to strictly define all of the visualization parameters(e.g. which measures to visualize, how to split visualizations, how tocolor code visualization, etc.), the user has quickly arrived at anactionable insight through three simple interactions, specifically theselection three field identifiers listed in field picker 2002.

As previously alluded to, a displayed literal expression of a givenvisualization is in some cases editable by the user to, for example,modify splits in a particular visualization. For example, as shown inFIG. 30C, in response to a user selection of one of the elements in theliteral expression 3040 b (e.g. “# values (2)”), the system may causedisplay of an option 3042 c to modify (e.g. via a pull down menu) theselected element in the literal expression. For example, as shown inFIG. 30C, visualization 3030 b is currently split by “# values(2)”however the use may elect to instead split by “app:category.” Updatedvisualization 3030 d shown in FIG. 30D is an example result of such anelection. As expressed in updated literal expression 3030 d,visualization 3030 d is now shows AVG(packets_in), AVG(packets_out)split by “app:category.” For example as shown, updated visualization3030 d shows five color coded categorically split (by app category) barcharts for each measure (average packets in and average packets out).

To further explore a data set and uncover additional insights, a usercan continue to select additional fields. For example, FIG. 30E shows anexample updated visualization 3030 e that may be displayed in responseto a user selection of a fourth field. As shown in FIG. 30E, a user hasadditionally selected a fourth field, “src_user” that includescategorical literal values referencing specific user names. For example,as indicated by graphical elements 3020, 3022, 3024, and 3026, theupdated visualization 3030 e is now based on two measure fields(packets_in and packets_out) as and two category fields (app:categoryand src_user). Note that the two category fields have filters applied(e.g. as indicated by elements 3024 and 3026) to simplify the resultingvisualization 3030 e for clarity. As shown in FIG. 30E, the resultingvisualization 3030 e now includes color coded bar charts of the twomeasures (i.e. avg. packets_in and avg. packets_out) for each selecteduse (i.e. selected value in the “src_user” field), split by the selectedapplication categories (i.e. by the selected values in the“app:category” field). Based on the information presented invisualization 3030 e, the user can now see, for example, that for agiven time frame, applications classified as “general internet” areassociated with heavier network traffic that applications classified as“collaboration” or “networking.” The user can further see that certainusers (e.g. Peter McVries) may be associated with heavier traffic incertain application categories.

Again, similar to literal expression 3040 b described with respect toFIGS. 30B and 30C, updated visualization 3030 e may correspond to anupdated literal expression 3040 e. For example, as shown in FIG. 30E,updated literal expression 3040 e now shows AVG(packets_in),AVG(packets_out), by “src_user” split by “# values (2).” Further similarto as described with respect to FIGS. 30B and 30C, the system may causedisplay of options to modify (e.g. via a pull down menu) select elementsin the literal expression. For example, as shown in FIG. 30F, a user asselected, via option 3042 f, to change the literal expression toAVG(packets_in), AVG(packets_out), by “app:category” split by “# values(2),” thereby causing display of an updated visualization 3030 f.Similarly, as shown in FIG. 30G, a user as selected, via option 3042 g,to change the literal expression to AVG(packets_in), AVG(packets_out),by “src_user” split by “app:category,” thereby causing display of anupdated visualization 3030 g.

The user interaction flow through interface 2000 described with respectto FIGS. 30A-30G has been provided to further illustrate the exploratorynature of data analysis that may be possible using one or more of thefeatures of a data analysis tool, according to some embodiments. More orfewer elements (as well as different arrangements of those elements)than are shown in FIGS. 30A-30G may be implemented in other embodiments.Further, the features described with respect to FIGS. 30A-30G do notnecessarily appear in all embodiments of the presently describedinnovations.

For clarity the visualizations via the data analysis interface 2000 havebeen described with respect to FIGS. 21A-30G in the form of bar chartsand line graphs (e.g. based on whether a time dimension field isselected). However, these example visualization types (ad their basis ofselection) are examples and not to be construed as limiting. In someembodiments, other visualization types (e.g. pie charts, Sankeydiagrams, scatter plots, maps, network diagrams, etc.) may beimplemented to provide analytical insight to a user. For example, insome embodiments, a data analysis tool may dynamically update themanipulable visualization to be a geographical map in response toselection by a user of a field identifier referencing a field includinglocation values (e.g. location names, coordinates, etc.). As anotherexample, a data analysis tool may dynamically update the manipulablevisualization to be a network diagram in response to selection by a userof a field identifier referencing a field including network entityidentifiers (e.g. IP addresses, device UIDs, etc.).

As shown in FIG. 31, in some embodiments, example interface 2000 mayfurther include an option 3170 to save a particular visualization 3130as any of a saved state of the data analysis tool (i.e. set of fieldselections, etc.), a report, or a dashboard panel.

Also as shown in FIG. 31, in some embodiments, example interface 2000may include an option 3172 to view the particular visualization 3130 assearch query. As previously described, in some embodiments, eachiteration of a visualization displayed via interface 2000 can correspondto a search query expressed in a query language (e.g. SPL). For examplein response to a user selecting option 3172 to view visualization 3130in search, the system may cause display of search screen 3200 as shownin FIG. 32 (for example the same or similar to search screen 600 shownin FIG. 6A) that includes a generated search query expressed in a querylanguage (e.g. SPL) 3280 that corresponds to the selected fields,aggregation functions, filters, etc. upon which visualization 3130 isbased. The search query may be automatically generated for the user inthe particular query language. If desired, a user can then edit thesearch query 3280 to further dig into the data. In some embodiments,search screen 3200 may further include an events list 3283 that includesa listing of events (and in some cases raw and/or processed machine dataincluded in the events) that satisfy a criteria of the generated searchquery 3280.

4.0 Computer Processing System

FIG. 33 shows a high-level example of a hardware architecture of aprocessing system that can be used to implement any one or more of thefunctional components referred to above (e.g., the data analysis tool,forwarders, indexer, search head, data store, etc.). One or multipleinstances of an architecture such as shown in FIG. 33 (e.g., multiplecomputers) can be used to implement the techniques described herein,where multiple such instances can be coupled to each other via one ormore networks.

The illustrated processing system 3300 includes one or more processors3310, one or more memories 3311, one or more communication device(s)3312, one or more input/output (I/O) devices 3313, and one or more massstorage devices 3314, all coupled to each other through an interconnect3315. The interconnect 3315 may be or include one or more conductivetraces, buses, point-to-point connections, controllers, adapters and/orother conventional connection devices. Each processor 3310 controls, atleast in part, the overall operation of the processing device 3300 andcan be or include, for example, one or more general-purpose programmablemicroprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), mobile applicationprocessors, microcontrollers, application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), programmable gate arrays (PGAs), or the like, or a combinationof such devices.

Each memory 3311 can be or include one or more physical storage devices,which may be in the form of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM) (which may be erasable and programmable), flash memory, miniaturehard disk drive, or other suitable type of storage device, or acombination of such devices. Each mass storage device 3314 can be orinclude one or more hard drives, digital versatile disks (DVDs), flashmemories, or the like. Each memory 3311 and/or mass storage 3314 canstore (individually or collectively) data and instructions thatconfigure the processor(s) 3310 to execute operations to implement thetechniques described above. Each communication device 3312 may be orinclude, for example, an Ethernet adapter, cable modem, Wi-Fi adapter,cellular transceiver, baseband processor, Bluetooth or Bluetooth LowEnergy (BLE) transceiver, or the like, or a combination thereof.Depending on the specific nature and purpose of the processing system3300, each I/O device 3313 can be or include a device such as a display(which may be a touch screen display), audio speaker, keyboard, mouse orother pointing device, microphone, camera, etc. Note, however, that suchI/O devices may be unnecessary if the processing device 3300 is embodiedsolely as a server computer.

In the case of a user device, a communication device 3312 can be orinclude, for example, a cellular telecommunications transceiver (e.g.,3G, LTE/4G, 5G), Wi-Fi transceiver, baseband processor, Bluetooth or BLEtransceiver, or the like, or a combination thereof. In the case of aserver, a communication device 3312 can be or include, for example, anyof the aforementioned types of communication devices, a wired Ethernetadapter, cable modem, DSL modem, or the like, or a combination of suchdevices.

Any or all of the features and functions described above can be combinedwith each other, except to the extent it may be otherwise stated aboveor to the extent that any such embodiments may be incompatible by virtueof their function or structure, as will be apparent to persons ofordinary skill in the art. Unless contrary to physical possibility, itis envisioned that (i) the methods/steps described herein may beperformed in any sequence and/or in any combination, and that (ii) thecomponents of respective embodiments may be combined in any manner.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or acts, it is to be understood that the subjectmatter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to thespecific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific featuresand acts described above are disclosed as examples of implementing theclaims and other equivalent features and acts are intended to be withinthe scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: causing display of aninteractive field picker element in a graphical user interface (GUI),the interactive field picker element including a set of interactivefield identifiers, wherein each interactive field identifier in the setof interactive field identifiers references a corresponding field of aset of fields in a set of events returned in response to a search query,and wherein each event in the set of events includes a time-stampedportion of raw machine data reflecting activity of a component in aninformation technology (IT) environment; receiving, via the interactivefield picker element, a plurality of selections, each of the pluralityof selections corresponding to a different one of the interactive fieldidentifiers in the interactive field picker element; and in response toeach selection of the plurality of selections: generating an updatedsearch query based on the selection, wherein the updated search queryincludes a search criterion based on a field referenced by aninteractive field identifier corresponding to the selection; executingthe updated search query; and receiving an updated set of events inresponse to execution of the updated search query.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: causing display, in the GUI, of an editableexpression of the updated search query in a query language.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: causing display, in the GUI, ofan editable expression of the updated search query in a query language;enabling editing of the displayed editable expression of the updatedsearch query; and updating at least the search criterion of the updatedsearch query based on an edit to the displayed editable expression ofthe updated search query.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the updatedsearch query is in Splunk Processing Language (SPL).
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of selections include: a first selectionof a first interactive field identifier from the interactive fieldpicker element; and a second selection of a second interactive fieldidentifier from the interactive field picker element; wherein generatingthe updated search query in response to each of the plurality ofselections includes: generating a first updated search query in responseto the first selection, wherein the first updated search query includesa first search criterion based on a first field referenced by the firstinteractive field identifier; and generating a second updated searchquery in response to the second selection, wherein the second updatedsearch query includes a second search criterion based on a second fieldreferenced by the second interactive field identifier; wherein the firstsearch criterion comprises a first command based on the first selection;wherein the second search criterion comprises a second command based onthe second selection; wherein the second command operates on a result ofthe first command; and wherein the second updated search query furthercomprises a symbol that separates the first command and the secondcommand.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of interactive fieldidentifiers include a first interactive field identifier and a secondinteractive field identifier; wherein the first field identifiercorresponds to a first field present in the set of events, wherein thesecond field identifier corresponds to a second field present in the setof events; wherein the first field has a first field type; and whereinthe second field has a second field type.
 7. The method of claim 1,further comprising: causing display of data corresponding to the updatedset of events received in response to execution of the updated searchquery.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of interactive fieldidentifiers include a first interactive field identifier and a secondinteractive field identifier; wherein the first interactive fieldidentifier references a first field associated with a first type ofevent represented in a first data format; and wherein the secondinteractive field identifier references a second field associated with asecond type of event represented in a second data format.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the set of events include a first type of event anda second type of event; wherein the first type of event is generated bya first data source; and wherein the second type of event is generatedby a second data source.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the searchquery includes an extraction rule for a field included in the searchquery.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: analyzing theupdated search query to identify a first portion of the updated searchquery and a second portion of the updated search query; whereinexecuting the updated search query includes: distributing the firstportion of the updated search query or the second portion of the updatedsearch query to an indexer.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein receivingthe updated set of events includes: identifying a parameter of theupdated search query; using the parameter, obtaining a superset of theupdated set of events by querying one or more indexers; and producingthe updated set of events by filtering the superset of the updated setof events.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated search queryidentifies at least one of an aggregation function and a filter appliedto the set of events.
 14. A computer system comprising: a processingunit; and a storage device having instructions stored thereon, whichwhen executed by the processing unit cause the computer system to: causedisplay of an interactive field picker element in a graphical userinterface (GUI), the interactive field picker element including a set ofinteractive field identifiers, wherein each interactive field identifierin the set of interactive field identifiers references a correspondingfield of a set of fields in a set of events returned in response to asearch query, and wherein each event in the set of events includes atime-stamped portion of raw machine data reflecting activity of acomponent in an information technology (IT) environment; receive, viathe interactive field picker element, a plurality of selections, each ofthe plurality of selections corresponding to a different one of theinteractive field identifiers in the interactive field picker element;and in response to each selection of the plurality of selections:generate an updated search query based on the selection, wherein theupdated search query includes a search criterion based on a fieldreferenced by an interactive field identifier corresponding to theselection; execute the updated search query; and receive an updated setof events in response to execution of the updated search query.
 15. Thecomputer system of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed bythe processing unit, further cause the computer system to: causedisplay, in the GUI, of an editable expression of the updated searchquery in a query language.
 16. The computer system of claim 14, whereinthe instructions, when executed by the processing unit, further causethe computer system to: cause display, in the GUI, of an editableexpression of the updated search query in a query language; enableediting of the displayed editable expression of the updated searchquery; and update at least the search criterion of the updated searchquery based on an edit to the displayed editable expression of theupdated search query.
 17. The computer system of claim 14, wherein theupdated search query is in Splunk Processing Language (SPL).
 18. Thecomputer system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of selectionsinclude: a first selection of a first interactive field identifier fromthe interactive field picker element; and a second selection of a secondinteractive field identifier from the interactive field picker element;wherein generating the updated search query in response to each of theplurality of selections includes: generating a first updated searchquery based on the first selection, wherein the first updated searchquery includes a first search criterion based on a first fieldreferenced by the first interactive field identifier; and generating asecond updated search query based on the second selection, wherein thesecond updated search query includes a second search criterion based ona second field referenced by the second interactive field identifier;wherein the first search criterion comprises a first command based onthe first selection; wherein the second search criterion comprises asecond command based on the second selection; wherein the second commandoperates on a result of the first command; and wherein the secondupdated search query further comprises a symbol that separates the firstcommand and the second command.
 19. The computer system of claim 14,wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, furthercause the computer system to: cause display of data corresponding to theupdated set of events received in response to execution of the updatedsearch query.
 20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containinginstructions, execution of which in a computer system causes thecomputer system to: cause display of an interactive field picker elementin a graphical user interface (GUI), the interactive field pickerelement including a set of interactive field identifiers, wherein eachinteractive field identifier in the set of interactive field identifiersreferences a corresponding field of a set of fields in a set of eventsreturned in response to a search query, and wherein each event in theset of events includes a time-stamped portion of raw machine datareflecting activity of a component in an information technology (IT)environment; receive, via the interactive field picker element, aplurality of selections, each of the plurality of selectionscorresponding to a different one of the interactive field identifiers inthe interactive field picker element; and in response to each selectionof the plurality of selections: generate an updated search query basedon the selection, wherein the updated search query includes a searchcriterion based on a field referenced by an interactive field identifiercorresponding to the selection; execute the updated search query; andreceive an updated set of events in response to execution of the updatedsearch query.
 21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim20, wherein the instructions, execution of which in the computer system,further cause the computer system to: cause display, in the GUI, of aneditable expression of the updated search query in a query language. 22.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein theinstructions, execution of which in the computer system, further causethe computer system to: cause display, in the GUI, of an editableexpression of the updated search query in a query language; enableediting of the displayed editable expression of the updated searchquery; and update at least the criterion of the updated search querybased on an edit to the displayed editable expression of the updatedsearch query.
 23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim20, wherein the query language is Splunk Processing Language (SPL). 24.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein theplurality of selections include: a first selection of a firstinteractive field identifier from the interactive field picker element;and a second selection of a second interactive field identifier from theinteractive field picker element; wherein generating an updated searchquery in response to each of the plurality of selections includes:generating a first updated search query based on the first selection,wherein the first updated search query includes a first search criterionbased on a first field referenced by the first interactive fieldidentifier; and generating a second updated search query based on thesecond selection, wherein the second updated search query includes asecond search criterion based on a second field referenced by the secondinteractive field identifier; wherein the first search criterioncomprises a first command based on the first selection; wherein thesecond search criterion comprises a second command based on the secondselection; wherein the second command operates on a result of the firstcommand; and wherein the second updated search query further comprises asymbol that separates the first command and the second command.
 25. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein theinstructions, execution of which in the computer system, further causethe computer system to: cause display of data corresponding to theupdated set of events received in response to execution of the updatedsearch query.
 26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim20, wherein the instructions, execution of which in the computer system,further cause the computer system to: analyze the updated search queryto identify a first portion of the updated search query and a secondportion of the updated search query; wherein executing the updatedsearch query includes: distributing-the first portion of the updatedsearch query or the second portion of the updated search query to anindexer.
 27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20,wherein receiving the updated set of events includes: identifying aparameter of the updated search query; using the parameter, obtaining asuperset of the updated set of events by querying one or more indexers;and producing the updated set of events by filtering the superset of theupdated set of events.